A Slice of Salt Lake
City:
City Blocks 63 and 64
of Salt Lake City, 1880 to 1900
Changing Demographics
Preface
Between Fifth West and
Sixth West on Second South Street located between Salt Lake City’s Blocks 63
and 64, generations of men, women, and some children played their lives out.
Hundreds of other people called the block their temporary home. They all were
for the most part hard working, hard living people, and primarily not members
of the dominate faith of Utah. They are also mostly forgotten today. The
street, nevertheless, is filled with phantoms of past lives that in Salt Lake
City is not normally recorded in local histories but are there still if one
takes the time to look.
Articles in the early
Salt Lake City newspapers mentioned reports of deaths, suicides, fights,
robberies, and rowdy behaviors among mostly a masculine population living on Second South.
While this section of
Second South today is designated as Old Greek Town, it was once filled with
such a diversity of people found nowhere else in Salt Lake City. Census records
from the last half of the Nineteenth Century and first half of the Twentieth
Century show that among the many people who called Second South home were English,
Welsh, Irish, Chinese, Italians, Syrians, Lebanese, Japanese, Mexicans and it
was also was one of the few places in Salt Lake City where African Americans
could reside.
For the first thirty
years of city blocks 63 and 64 history the area consisted mainly of Mormon
pioneer settlers, who were primarily emigrants from the British Isle.
During the two decades
between 1880 and 1900 the Rio Grande District of city blocks 63 and 64 were
dramatically transformed from a rural pioneer Mormon west side community to a
bustling “Gentile” or non-Mormon commercial and residential area. The term
“Gentile” was used by Mormons in the 19th Century to refer to who
were not members of their faith. It has been replaced with the ubiquitous
“nonmember” terminology used today.
The railroads brought to
Utah the first group of non-European ethnic
laborers, the Chinese, followed by the Irish, and then the Italians. These
ethnic groups flourished in the 1880s
and 1890’s near the railroad yards located in the western side of Salt Lake
City. The Chinese were an exception, as they dominated a section of downtown
called Plum Alley.
By the early Twentieth Century the railroads and mining
interests brought to Sixth West and Second South Greeks, Mexicans, Japanese,
and African Americans where they provided cheap labor which could be
exploited.
Chapter One
The Denver & Rio
Grande Western Railroad Depot
Nothing impacted Salt
Lake City’s municipal blocks of 63 and 64, separated by West Second South
Street, as did the coming of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway to Utah in 1881.
The railway changed the demographics of the mostly rural west side of Salt Lake
inhabited previously mostly by Mormon pioneers. The D&RG rail yards brought hundreds if not thousands
of non-Mormon Americans and foreign immigrant workers to Utah Territory to lay
tracks and construct the freight and passenger depots.
General William J. Palmer and the D & GR Railway
The Denver & Rio
Grande Railway company was the vision of General William J. Palmer, a decorated
U.S. Army officer of the Civil War. He “envisioned something which had never
before been attempted; a corridor piercing the heart of the Rocky Mountains.”
He planned to link Denver, Colorado with the Mexican border, “following its
namesake Rio Grande River for much of the way,” to reach the “San Juan mining
district, and also to head west to Salt Lake City.”
According to author
James Griffin's book, "Rio Grande Railroad," General Palmer became
convinced that Colorado was “tailor-made for a railroad; its eastern plains
were highly conducive to agricultural development and the Rocky Mountains were
rich in precious metals and coal.” Palmer along with business partners from
Denver chartered the Denver & Rio Grande Railway on 27 October 1870.
The primary route of the
Denver & Rio Grande “would link Denver with El Paso, Texas running along
the Front Range in an effort to establish through service into Mexico. A
secondary main line would reach the Central Pacific at Salt Lake City/Ogden.”
Unfortunately, before
Palmer could establish a steady flow of capital, the financial Panic of 1873
delayed the project. While the D&RG never entered bankruptcy, construction
was delayed until 1876 when the economy improved. Then much of the construction
of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad was hampered by lawsuits and conflicts
with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad in the 1870’s. As a result,
for a few years D&RG “management elected not to continue towards Utah
instead, opted for a more southerly route to coal mines.”
“The notorious
tycoon”, Jay Gould,” was credited for ending the fighting between the railroad
companies as he had “effectively gained control of the D&RG.” With this
dispute over, General Palmer turned his attention back towards expansion and
the 1880's were “a banner decade for the D&RGW as it exploded in
size.”
Because of the region's
rugged topography, the D&RG owners decided upon “a narrower, 3-foot gauge
right-of-way in an effort to reduce costs and avoid clearance issues.”
General Palmer left the
board of the D&RG to concentrate on a subsidiary of the railway that would
connect Salt Lake City with Grand Junction, Colorado. This new line was called
the “Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway” and was organized on 21 July 1881
with “rights to build from the Colorado and Utah state line to Salt Lake City
via Green River, Soldier Summit, and Provo.”
To achieve these ends,
the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway acquired three small Utah short
lines, all which were originally built to serve either “coal, silver, or copper
mines situated south and east of Salt Lake City.”
Of these, the Utah &
Pleasant Valley proved most important to the D&RG Western as it opened
fifty-five miles between Springville and Scofield, Utah by November of 1879.
This track was extended further north to Provo. In October of 1880, the
D&RGW worked to finish a disconnected segment of track between Provo and
Salt Lake City.
The Denver & Rio
Grande Western reached Salt Lake in 1881 as a “narrow-gauge line at that time”
which “formed a new connecting link in the trans-continental line between the
east and west.”
Salt Lake City’s Denver & Rio Grande Hub
Four Salt Lake City
blocks west of downtown had been put up for public auction in 1879 by Salt Lake
Mayor Feramorz Little. The four blocks, 35, 36, 37, and 38 contained forty
acres, which the Denver & Rio Grande purchased in 1881 on which to build
rail yard for a passenger and freight depot. The new Denver and Rio Grande
railway’s hub was built within Block 37 facing today’s Sixth West between
Second South and Third South.
At this location, the
first passenger depot for the Denver & Rio Grande was built as well as repair shops, machine shops, boiler
shops, and even a tall smokestack. When constructed the smoke stack attracted
“unusual attention” and was considered “somewhat of a marvel” as it 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.”
The actual 40 acres
purchased by the Denver & Rio Grande extended from Fourth South Street to
South Temple Street and westward from Sixth to Eight West. The main track line for
the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad ran
along Seventh West Street with several narrow-gauge spur lines crisscrossing
the area.
After 1882 the Denver
& Rio Grande train tracks divided the west side of Salt Lake City from
downtown and from the more affluent eastern half of the city a divide even more
accentuated with the construction of the Interstate 15 in the 1960’s.
Block 37 is where now the
UDOT’s Front Runner is located as well as the Bus station, and Amtrak
transportation terminals. Block 37 was
hemmed in by what was then Fifth West and Sixth West, and between Second South
and Third South, north and south.
Land Speculation
The Denver & Rio
Grande rail yards dramatically increased the land values of the west side of
Salt Lake City which at the time was considered the Fifteenth Ward. The
Fifteenth Ward boundaries reached from West Temple as far as to the Jordan
River. The land in this area was considered cheap, marshy, and was considered
remote from the downtown business district and from the eastside residences of
the city.
The prospects of the
Denver & Rio Grande rail yards coming to Utah, increased the land values of
the west side of Salt Lake City which at the time was considered cheap, marshy,
and undesirable as it was considered a distance from the business district and
from the residences of the east side of the city.
In June 1881 it was
reported in Salt Lake City that, “ever since the disclosure, months ago of the
coming of the Denver & Rio Grande, real estate has been on the rise.”
The site of the D&RG depot must have been known by October 1881 as several
advertisements listed lots for building upon “close to Main, on Second South,
and on the road to the Denver & Rio Grande depot.”
Another advertisement
from 1881 promoted several parcels of land as being close to the Denver &
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 & Rio
Grande depot” being sold for $1750. Another lot consisting of 5 [82.5 feet]
rods by 10 [165 feet] rods was promoted as being “close to Main, on Second
South Street and on the road to Denver & Rio Grande depot.” It was being
sold for $900. Still another “half lot,” in the Fifteenth Ward, “near railroad”
was being offered for $600.
During the two decades between 1880 and 1900,
the Rio Grande District as it became known, was a bustling community, nearly a mile
from the downtown business district. The Denver & Rio Grande Western
brought to Salt Lake City a variety of railroad men and their families Utah to
be employed as locomotive engineers, firemen, and brakemen, as well as mechanics,
boiler makers, carpenters, and basic unskilled laborers who were often ethnic minorities.
The Denver and Rio Grande Passenger Depot
The firms of Elias
Morris and George Romney “jointly” were awarded the contract to build the
Denver & Rio Grande depot in 1882. When the workers were “scraping and
grading” the location for the depot, “they turned up a number of bones” of
“three human beings.” The skeletons were said to have been 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 that the “work on the Denver & 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 construction of the
Denver & Rio Grande depot faced more challenges as reported in April 1883,
when “a large force of men was put to work at the Denver & Rio Grande
passenger depot”, and it was “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, which 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.”
The first building was
demolished and a new Passenger Depot was set further within Block 37.
Second South’s development from its
rural beginnings was noted in local newspapers in 1885. One wrote, “Any person
passing the Denver & Rio Grande depot will be made to note the
beautification of the surroundings. There is no mistaking the enterprise of the
managers of the Denver & 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.”
Stray Livestock
Prior to the coming of
the railroad much of the west side of Salt Lake consisted of small farms
containing livestock such as horses, cows, goats, and pigs which often strayed.
Stray livestock from the Sixteenth Ward, located north of South Temple, and the
Fifteenth Ward was a particular issue with which the Denver & Rio Grande
train yards had to deal.
In April 1883 there was
the number of loose cows in the vicinity according to news paper accounts. “The
police were about the Sixteenth Ward, investigating the matter of cows running
loose about the Denver & Rio Grande depot and have been very annoying. On
Friday, a cow in the Sixteenth Ward was running on the track with a Denver
& 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 Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway
In 1883, “a short
branch” narrow gauge line of the D&RG was built from Salt Lake City to
Ogden “which established a transcontinental connection with the Central Pacific
and Southern Pacific” railroads. However, “strained finances” led General
Palmer to resign from the D&RG company in 1883 and “moved on to lead the
railway’s subsidiary D&RGW.”
When the D&RG
entered receivership in 1884, “as a result of over-exuberant expansion, it elected
not to renew its D&RGW lease following its reorganization on July 14,
1886.” The Rio Grande Western Railway became a separate entity then, “after
which time Palmer began improvements on his end.”
The original Denver
& Rio Grande Railway simply became the Rio Grande Western Railway in 1886
as part of a plan to upgrade the line from narrow gauge to standard gauge. The
company then built several branch lines in Utah to reach the lucrative coalfields
near Helper and Price Utah.
The Denver & Rio
Grande’s main line into Salt Lake City connected travelers traveling west from
the Denver depot. However, the narrow-gauge railroad line laid to connect the
Union Pacific depot in Ogden with Salt Lake City was not replaced by a standard
gauge until 1889 which allowed a direct connection to the Pacific Northwest and
the eastern states. The work of converting the entire network of the Rio
Grande Western to standard gauge was carried out from Ogden, Utah to Grand Junction,
Colorado, and was completed on 11 June 1890. The road was then true to its
slogan, "Through The Rockies, Not Around Them"
The Oregon Short Line
connected the Pacific Northwest with Salt Lake and its Salt Lake depot was
located in block 65 at the northwest corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and First
South. The tracks of the Oregon Short Line ran down Fourth [Fifth] West where
they essentially hemmed in blocks 64 and 63 on the east side.
By 1892 most of Utah’s
railroad lines had been absorbed into either the Union Pacific or Rio Grande
systems, both having built branches and spurs of about “one thousand five
hundred miles of railroad.”
In 1896, tycoon Jay
Gould's empire was handed over to his son, George, “who continued his father's
transcontinental ambitions.” George Gould reunited the Denver & Rio
Grande and Rio Grande Western under “common management in 1901.” However, when
the financial Panic of 1907 struck, “Gould's financing collapsed and he merged
the Rio Grande Western into the Denver & Rio Grande” in 1908.
Infrastructure and Civic
Improvements
The coming of the Denver
& Rio Grande Railroad to Utah allowed residents of the western portion of
the city in 1882 to asked the city
commissioners to extend the water mains “along certain designated streets to
Denver & Rio Grande Depot, corner of Third South and Sixth West Streets.” Prior to this time most people relied on
wells on their properties. The request had the support of Henry Wood,
superintendent of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, who stated that the
railway would “provide the means required to make up three-Fourths of the
entire expense.”
As the new Rio Grande
Depot was expected to bring business into the city, on 1 August 1882 a new
streetcar track was proposed to connect a “number of hotels with the Denver
& Rio Grande Depot.” The streetcar tracks were laid 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 decision to lay the
tracks on Third South rather than Second South was “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.”
Another consideration
was that “by going the route determined on, the cars will pass the freight and
other departments of the Denver & Rio Grande and will be a much greater
convenience to the people living in that direction and to persons who reside
over Jordan.”
Before the coming of the
Denver & Rio Grande railroad depot, the streets, roads, and alleys
surrounding blocks 63 and 64 were ungraded dirt paths. The area was considered
marshy, with standing ponds of scum water filled with frogs. Cows and other
livestock roamed freely and travel from the area into downtown was considered
arduous in the daytime and dangerous at night due to the lack of proper
streetlamps.
By the time the Denver
& Rio Grande Railway established their freight and passenger depot in block
37 directly to the east of block 63, businesses were built on the east side of
Fifth [Sixth] West in order to accommodate the influx of laborers and
travelers.
Sidewalks, that existed
when the area started to grow with commerce, were mostly wooden planks in front
of various establishments. The streets were either dusty, muddy, or frozen
depending on the time of the year.
In September 1884, a
petition from the Denver & Rio Grande director, William H. Bancroft, and
twenty-two other prominent businessmen, asked that Second South Street from
Second [Third] West Street to the Denver & Rio Grande be graded. The
request was referred to the Salt Lake Committee on Streets and alleys.
However, it was not
until March 1885 that the Committee of Streets and Alleys considered the
request and recommended the offer of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad
company to lay the necessary track and transport the gravel surrounding Block
63. The railroad’s only request was that the “city would load and unload and
spread the gravel.
In 1891 the City’s
Street Committee approved ‘walkways' of non-porous brick to be laid along
Second South from Seventh East to Fifth [Sixth] West where the Denver & Rio
Grande Western depot was located. The choice of bricks for a sidewalk was based
“on grounds of cheapness and durability as recommended by the city
engineer.”
In August 1891, James
Hegney, and other businessmen asked that a sidewalk be constructed on the
north side of Second South from Fifth [Sixth] West to Seventh [Eighth] West and
asked that an “abatement of a nuisance in the shape of a pool of stagnant water
on Second south between Fifth and Sixth West,” be approved.
In October 1891, the
request was approved, however by 1893 sidewalks still only extended from Eighth
East to Fifth [Sixth] West along Second South.
In April 1893, the City Council agreed to construct
sidewalks of “asphaltum”, a cheaper alternative to bricks. A six-inch gravel
foundation on both sides of Second South Street from Fifth [Sixth] West Street
to the Jordan river, at a “cost ninety cents per linear front foot” was
presented to the council to be paid “by local assessment upon lots.” Still, it
took a year until 1894 for a “special tax” to be approved “for the construction
of sidewalks on Second South between Fifth [Sixth] West and the Jordan River”
to be adopted.
The area also lacked sufficient street lamp illumination
for travel at night which was one of the reasons the area was riffed with
crime. The City Council in December 1894 passed an ordinance “to place 160
lights'' in the city, “one at the intersection of each principal street and one
at alternate intersections” although the number of lamps on Second South
between Sixth [Seventh]west and Fifth [Sixth] West was reduced. “There are but two
lights west of Fifth [Sixth] West and very few of West Third South.
The reduction of the
amount of lighting infrastructure may have been due to the national economic
crisis that began in 1893 which greatly affected the Railroad Industry and
those Rio Grande District businesses depended on freight and passenger depots.
The Panic of 1893
A serious economic depression in the United States, known
as the Panic of 1893, impacted businesses in Salt Lake City as was the case in
every sector of the national economy. Nearly twenty percent of the nation's
workforce was unemployed at the peak of the panic. This resulted in many
unemployed men being displaced, in some cases abandoning families, and resorted
to joining the legion of "tramps and hobos" who went from town to
town looking for work and or a handout. The economic depression caused by the
Panic of 1893 did not end until 1897.
The Panic caused nearly a fifth of all bank failures
across the nation, many of them in the west. Especially damaged were the
nation’s railroad industries. The Northern Pacific Railway, the Union Pacific
Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad all filed for
bankruptcy.
Additionally in 1894 a
severe wave of railroad worker strikes took place as a response to low wages.
The most serious was that of the “Pullman Strike” which shut down much of the
nation's transportation system in July.
As the Panic of 1893
shut down much of the economy, railroads stopped the purchase of new passenger
cars from the Pullman Company. When the company laid off workers and lowered
wages, it did not reduce rents, and the workers called for a strike.
The American Railway
Union, founded in 1893 by Union organizer Eugene V. Debs, signed up many of the
“disgruntled factory workers.” When the Pullman Company refused any
negotiations, the American Railroad Union called for a strike and “decided to
stop the movement of Pullman cars on railroads.”
A massive boycott
against all trains that carried a Pullman car affected most rail lines west of
Detroit and at its peak involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states. The federal
government ended the strike, and arrested Debs, but made Labor Day a federal
holiday to placate the labor movement.
In 1894, Rio Grande Western Railroad, on which much of
the economy of West Second South depended, stopped its ambitious plan to
convert its tracks system from narrow gauge to standard gauge. A significant
number of western mountain narrow-gauge railroads, which had been built to
serve the mines, also went out of business.
Chapter Two
Chinese Immigration to Utah
The Chinese were a
group of foreign workers in Utah, although not as prolific as European
emigrants due to racial prejudices of the times were. 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” to
Anglo-Saxon culture.
Working class
conflicts in the West often turned violent as the Chinese railroad workers were
seen as a threat to white workers by driving down wages. The massacre of
Chinese laborers occurred in several western towns, specifically in Rock
Springs, Wyoming.
The United State Congress was pressured to
pass a series of Chinese exclusion acts in the late Nineteenth Century to
“placate worker demands.” These racist legislations were also meant to “assuage
prevalent concerns about maintaining white racial purity.”
To
curtail the growth of the Chinese population in America, Congress passed the
Page Act of 1875 which was the first restrictive federal immigration law in the
United States. It “effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women,” thereby
limiting the growth of Chinese families. Only Chinese women, who had immigrated
prior to 1875, were able to become wives and mothers of American Chinese
children. America’s 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, and those who wished to marry had
to return to China to do so.
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 to the United States for a period of ten years. The law declared
Chinese emigrant’s 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, after suing, however,
did achieve the right to testify in court cases. An 1882 appellate court’s
decision ruled 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 the 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 remained ineligible for United States
citizenship until 1943 with the passage of the Magnuson Act.
In Salt Lake City,
anti-Chinese sentiment was evident as stated in a newspaper article from July
1893 “Labor Demonstration Working Men propose to Boycott Employers of Chinese.”
James Terry a representative
of the cooks and waiter’s union had 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, the
proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel on Fifth [Sixth] West was singled out as
someone who “used to employ Chinamen and will do so 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.”
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 laborers 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 sizable
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 to decrease
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 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 accurately spelled and often used disparagingly. Rarely were they
even included in city directories except for laundries and eateries.
By the 1890s, West
Second South had become ethnically diverse as the rest of Salt Lake City had
strict laws regarding where nonwhites could live. The ethnic population of Salt
Lake City at that time was primarily made up of northern Europeans, such as
Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Welsh, 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.
Ah Jack: The 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 remunerations. 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 of 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 City 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, and 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 if there was the slightest cessation of
the horns and drums.”
W.H. Remington,
who was the administrator of the estate of Ah jack, filed an inventory with the
county showing that his estate was worth $913.
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 & Rio Grande Western Depot, behind and south of Jim
Hegney’s Rio Grande Hotel in Block 63. While his primary residence was near the
Rio Grande Hotel, most of his dealings were with the Chinese community of Plum
Alley in 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 between the
Chinese. The Times reported the cause of the quarrel “was the refusal of one of
the colonies to subscribe to what was expected of him that aroused the dogs of
war.” A Chinese individual had 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 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
loose.”
Little is known about Ah
Jack as the City Directories in the 19th Century did not list racial
minorities. What is known about him came from a Salt Lake Herald Republican
newspaper article from 1894 entitled, “Chinese Sunday Banquet” where he hosted
a feast to celebrate the Chinese New Year’s for officials of the Denver &
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 lavish banquet provided by the Chinese businessman to
many of the notables of the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad.
In the February 1894
Herald's banquet article called “Ah Jack Gives His Salt Lake Friends a Good
Dinner”, the reporter described the exotic meal and many of those 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.”
Salt Lake
Herald-Republican printed on 2 February 1894, “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 dozens 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 chopsticks 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,
orbiter 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 anecdotal 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 Mormons so called uncivilized 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.
Wah Lee: Laundryman
The 1880 Federal
Census listed a 22-year-old man named Wah Lee as a laundryman living on the
West Side of East Temple Street which is today State Street. He was born in
China and was listed as a single man and the head of a household consisting of
his 20 year old brother and two other Chinese men. His brother was simply
enumerated as “Lee.”
The two other men
in the household were named “Sing” age 23 and “25-year-old “De Ken” His and his
brother’s occupation was given as “Wash Man” in a “Wash House "while the
two others were listed as “servants” in the “Wash House”. The brothers were
residing and working probably at the Walker Hotel by which they were
enumerated. Next to Wah Lee was a household of another Chinese Washman with
three Chinese “servants” in his household. The 1891 City 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 City
Directory for Salt Lake City now 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,
while doing business near the Rio Grande Western depot, 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. The Charles Swinger family lived on
125 South Fifth [Sixth] West in block 64.
“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 [Grant H.] Smith at the afternoon session of
court and stated that he had been annoyed for some time 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 it 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 discovery of
Leatham in bed with Lena Carter, and Hugh McKernan at James Hegney’s Albany
Hotel.
In court William
Leatham’s attorney questioned whether a Chinese man could be trusted accusing a
white man of a crime
The 1901 City
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 City
Directory for Salt Lake City also listed Wah Lee as operating a laundry at 16
Commercial Street.
A death record for
a “Wo Lee'' may have been the same individual. This man died in the
county hospital on 2 June 1917. The cause of his death was unknown but said to
have been natural. He was listed as about 57 years old, born in China and his
occupation was that of a “laundryman”. He was said to have been single and not
married. The informant was You Lee lived at 53 Plum Alley. This man was
buried in the city cemetery, probably in a pauper grave. The city’s death
records stated he was buried in the Chinese Plat section of the cemetery but in
October 1936 he was disinterred, and his body sent back to China.
Hop Lee
Another Chinese
man named Hop Lee, who may or may not have been the same individual who had
been arrested in 1891. The 1891 city directory for Salt Lake City listed Hope
Lee’s laundry at 62 South West Temple. The 1892 directory listed 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 on Fifth [Sixth] a young white man was harassing West.
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.”
The man who
demanded to see Hop Lee’s ticket, asked how much money he had on him until
another man, a “burly bystander,” interfered. The man told the bully, harassing
Hop Lee, to “Just leave that poor Chinaman alone” that “he probably earned that
[his money and ticket] with more sweat than some people ever lost in their
entire lives.”
Charley Hong and
Lee Ong “Cooks”
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, [1846-1901] 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 was 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
dishwasher 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, which 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-fashioned 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.”
Chapter Three
The Irish Immigration
One of the earliest demographic changes to Block 63 was the
influx of Irish laborers, railroaders, and entrepreneurs, either as immigrants
or as first-generation Americans.
The Denver & Rio Grande Railway company required
extensive labor to build the Railway yards in Block 47 and used cheap labor
laying tracks in Utah. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 thus created a demand
for inexpensive foreign labor from elsewhere, mostly from Ireland and Southern
Europe.
The Irish came to work specifically on the railroads at the
Union Pacific rail yards and then the Denver & Rio Grande Western
yards. As the railroad tracks hemmed in much of the Fifteenth Ward and
brought in a “foreign element”, the old-time Mormon settlers relocated either
further west of the Rio Grande Western depot near the Jordan river or to homes
on the eastside.
These Irish workers and their families were truly the first
ethnic minority to transform the character of Blocks 63 and 64 in the 1880’s
and 1890’s. The 1880’s newspapers are replete with stories of Irish laborers
and entrepreneurs who inhabited the two city blocks as they came in droves to
work for the railroads and create businesses catering to the needs of those
workers.
The Irish railway workers soon replaced the old Mormon polygamist
families in the Rio Grande District, and even established a Catholic Church
named St. Patrick. Between Mormon as well as Protestant Salt Lakers, these new
arrivals were troublesome. Most were Catholics and seen as “ideologically unfit
for participation in American democracy.” The older, more established
population of Utah felt the idea of thousands of “inassimilable” foreigners”
was problematic to a city long dominated by a Mormon Theocracy.
Two Irish American entrepreneurs, James Hegney, and
John Sullivan came to prominence in blocks 63 and 64 as hotel and saloon
owners. They were both active in promoting the anti-Mormon Liberal Party and
advocating for the causes of the working class of the Rio Grande District of
Salt Lake City.
John Sullivan Hotel Man
A biography of John Sullivan was provided by a descendant
Margaret Connelly who grew up next door to her Sullivan grandparents. A family
story related how John C. Sullivan, 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 in
a “drunken boast” proclaim “I’m John L. Sullivan and I can lick any man
in the world,” imitating the boast of the great John L. Sullivan the
prizefighter. “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.”
His Irish Beginnings
John Sullivan [1835-1920]
was an immigrant from famine ravaged Ireland. He arrives in New York by ship in
1850 but as Irish immigrants filled the city, 15-year-old Sullivan made his way
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.” Sullivan was employed
on a railroad gang and in Galesburg, Illinois, he became acquainted with
Michael Carey, another Irish worker. In
1858, Mike Carey’s younger sister Catherine arrived in Galesburg from Ireland
and in 1862 John Sullivan, age 27, and Catherine (Kate) Carey, age 19, were
married.
During the midst of the Civil War, in December 1863, the
new Union Pacific Railroad broke ground in Omaha, Nebraska Territory to build
the Transcontinental Railway. Sullivan went to work for the Union Pacific
railroad, In early 1868, the Transcontinental Railroad was nearly
complete when John Sullivan returned home to Galesburg and raised a large
family with his wife.
Later John was offered a job as a ‘Section
boss’ with the Union Pacific, which meant more money, but the position was in
western Wyoming. The family is found
Piedmont, Wyoming in the 1880 census where only 41 households were
counted.
Connelly recounted
hearing that the folks in Piedmont were mostly “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 however Kate Sullivan worried her daughters would not find “any
suitable husbands” in Piedmont and also the family “miss the Irish community
back in Illinois.”
In Salt Lake City
In 1886, John
Sullivan was offered a job as a ‘Section Boss’ for the Denver & Rio Grande
Western (RGW) railroad, recently based in Salt Lake City. John then resigned
from the Union Pacific and the family moved to Utah. Salt Lake City in the late
1880s had a large Irish community that followed the railroads west.
John Sullivan met
an Irish man named Peter J. Connolly
at Rio Grande railroad yards that
eventually became his son in law, in 1887.
John Sullivan
noticed that there is a housing shortage for many of his rail yard laborers and
in 1889, he made “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.”
The Sullivan House Hotel
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, as was the Rio Grande Hotel, was also used as a location to recruit men
to work for the rail yard. 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.”
John Sullivan made
improvement to the Sullivan House. A
newspaper article dated 1 January 1890 showed that “John Sullivan of Fifth
[Sixth] West between 3rd and 4th 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 property must
have been under construction for improvements for much of the years as a list
of businesses and homes being constructed by the Carroll and Kerns Company in
October 1890 listed the expense of “J Sullivan, boarding House at $9,000 and
“John Sullivan, hotel $13,000.
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. There is no known
relationship between the two men as Sullivan was an exceptionally common Irish
name.
Death of George Snow
In November 1890, 63-year-old George Snow was “found lying
in a helpless condition at the corner of Third South and Fifth [Sixth] West
Streets in front of the Salt Lake Meat Co.’s office, “apparently in a fit. He
was immediately taken to the Sullivan House to be cared for where he expired in
ten minutes [November 28]. The deceased was a resident of this city since 1851
and was a habitual drunkard for many years.”
“Coroner Harris held an inquest yesterday [November 29] on
the body of George B. Snow, who fell dead near the Rio Grande Western
depot on Friday Night, and the jury decided that the death resulted from
natural causes. The deceased was 63 years of age and was a miner. He had
resided in the Sixth Ward for many years and had relatives there. Alcoholism is
supposed to have been the indirect cause of death.”
The death registry for George B Snow said he was from
England, died of “old age” and was buried in the pauper section of the Salt
Lake Cemetery. The 1880 federal census stated that he was a well digger. He
migrated to Utah Territory in 1852 with the James McGraw Mormon wagon train.
His Involvement with 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. Who 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
constantly by the Salt Lake Herald for their political views.
Also 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 70th birthday on St. Patrick day.” Both James Hegney proprietor of the
Rio Grande Hotel and John Sullivan of the Sullivan House were members of the association.
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 John Sullivan
and Jim Hegney were full supporters of the Liberal Party. 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.”
The hotly contested
1893 elections had the Salt Lake Herald report in October on “More Liberal
Crookedness”. The paper claimed, “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 paper alleged 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.”
The term floater
referred to people convicted for vagrancy who were ordered by the courts to
“float” out of town or be lodged in jail.
The Sullivan House
did not find itself in the news as much as Jim Hegney’s Rio Grande Hotel but in November 1890, there was mention of
63-year-old George Snow being “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.”
The Nevada House Hotel
John Sullivan’s
boarding house easily attracted many tenants and business was so good that in
1891 he bought another hotel at 101 South 4th West called Nevada Place. He would remove his family to this location.
“Each of their adult unmarried children; Mike, Libby, Anne, and Maggie has
their own apartment at Nevada Place.” The Nevada House was located on property
once owned by Osmyn Deuel in Block 64 but across from the “Utah and Nevada
train depot.”
The hotel had its
share of people arrested in the hotel. On July 15, 1891 a man named Thomas Byrne “stole a quantity of
clothing from the Nevada House at the Utah and Nevada Depot, belonging to Ed
Dempsey.”
In December 1891 two individuals, William Harrison,
and George Johnson, who “uninvited wooed Morpheus in Sullivan’s boarding house” were arrested
by “Officers Heath and Shannon and booked on charges of trespass.”
An advertisement
from 1891 listed “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.” Whether he owned the property or was just brokering it is
unknown.
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 2nd May 1891.
The Suicide of Poney Anderson
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, a 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 in this part of the
country and never spoke of his family to anyone. “Drink was the cause of the
crime.”
Hard Times for the Sullivans
The economic Panic
of 1893 affected the Sullivans as that John assigned the lease for the Sullivan
House over to his wife Catherine, who a few months later assigned the lease to
a James Morey for $700.
In September 1893
fire broke out among the businesses located on Fifth [Sixth] West. On 5
Sept 1893 it was reported “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.”
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 leave 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.”
As the Panic of
1893 deepened it caused poverty to rise among the unemployed railroad workers.
Im February 1894 it was reported that “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.”
The financial
Panic of 1893 must have effected John Sullivan hard as that he was delinquent
paying his county taxes. A lien of $64
was placed on the Sullivan House in March 1894 and in December 1894 he was
delinquent again for improvements on Lot Three in Block 63 for $66.
In 1895 Edmund
Butterworth who owned the property leased to the Sullivans sued John Sullivan and Catherine Sullivan to
“recover $292 for rent due and restitution of premises.”
It appears that
John Sullivan lost his ownership of the Sullivan House sometime in October
1895. After this time, the building is referred to as the “old Sullivan House.”
An article from that time mentioned the formation of the “James Glendenning
Marching Club which “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.”
An article from 22
October 1895 stated that the Republican Party was using the building which
probably would not have occurred if Sullivan still retained ownership.
“All Second
Precinct West Side Republicans report at West Side Headquarters (Old Sullivan
House) at 7 pm to George Dean for a ratification of the Republican city ticket.
“
Again, on 2 Nov
1895 it was announced, “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.”
During April 1898
John Sullivan had indeed 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 a
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 encircled the
homes built on Denver Street by Edmund Butterworth.
Suicide of Jack Howard at the Sullivan House
In January 1900, a
man named Jack C Howard , [1864-1900], 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”.
“He had not been home
however for hours at least and slipped into the boarding house early this
morning [Jan 13] unknown to the proprietor.” The landlady, Mrs. Rachel L
Woodward was “called and she declared it was the first time she had seen
him.
“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.”
Edwin Harrison was
attracted to “a vacant room by the sound of someone breathing hard, and going
in, found Howard lying on the floor in a dying condition.” At first thought he
was “under the influence of Liquor.”
“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.” Mc Coy had only recently
been released from prison having been convicted of performing an
abortion.
After
being called to the scene Dr. McCoy said, “the man was dying” and nothing could be done for him as he had already begun to turn
cold. . He “found the man unconscious and just breathing, a
hypodermic injection of strychnine was given, and the man revived sufficiently
to say ‘laudanum’ several times and give his address.”
Howard told Dr.
McCoy that he had taken opium drug twelve hours opium and he “fought against
all efforts to save him.”
Police Officer
Fitzmaurice was called also, and he investigated “rumors that a youth named
Patrick Marine had seen two men “sandbag” Howard but the “rumors proved
groundless.”
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.
After his death, the
following note was take from Howard’s pocket. Howard had written a suicide note
blaming a man name Bill Donovan as being responsible for Howard having taken
his life.
“Bill Donovan, he caused
me to take my life. I fed him for three months, treated him nice, and then he
went and lied on me shamefully, disgracefully. This is the truth before God and
man. My wife was a good, loving little wife, and I never harmed her
intentionally and I hope she will pull though all right for I loved her dearly;
she is not to blame one bit, I am the one to blame.”
He had only been married five months when he
committed suicide. His wife, just a week before, had given birth to a baby
fathered by another man. A neighbor, who
volunteered to nurse the mother through her confinement, said Howard “brooded
continually about the birth of the child because as he said it was not his
own.” Howard however had “treated his wife with affection.”
The police could not
identify any one by the name of Bill Donovan. Mrs. Howard was asked “to the
identity of Bill Donovan and she said that her husband often complained that he
was being followed about by a man of that name but that he refused to tell her
who Donovan was.”
She mentioned that on
one occasion her husband told her that “Donovan had knocked him down, tried to
rob him, and then threatened to kill him, if he told of the occurrence. Several
times, someone has knocked at the door in the dead of night, and Howard believed
it was Donovan after him.”
Mrs. Howard was not told
of her husband’s “rash act” due to her weaken condition for several days and
when told was too ill to attend his funeral.
The Decline of the Sullivan House
By 1896 John Sullivan, nor either the Sullivan House or the
Nevada House, are mentioned in the city directory. He and his wife Kate
may have gone to live with some of their married children. Again in 1897 the city
directory no longer listed the Sullivan House Hotel and the only John Sullivan
listed in the was one who was a miner rooming at 263 South.
Property records showed that in April 1898, John Sullivan
lost his boarding house to the county for back taxes. He also is no longer
listed in the Salt Lake City directories until 1910 when mentioned John C Sullivan is residing at 839 Pierpont
Avenue. The family may have moved to Montana during this period or were simply
living with their married daughter’s families.
During July 1900,
Mrs. Alice Butterworth was able to acquire the hotel by a Quit Claim Deed from
the county for only $50. 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 were
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.
The only family residing at the hotel 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, a
stock tender, a carpenter, a machinist, an attorney at law. a railroad laborer,
a boilermaker, and a stable boss.
Leaving Blocks 63 and 64
John Sullivan eventually
managed to buy two homes next to each other at 839 and 843 Pierpont
Street. His daughter Catherine Agnes
Connolly lived with her husband and children in one home.
The 1900 federal census showed that John Sullivan’s wife
Kate Sullivan was in Butte, Montana residing with her married daughter Margaret
Mullins. The location of John Sullivan at the time is not known.
A Pedestrian Accident
The 1913 city directory listed John C Sullivan
as a “watchman” residing at 839 Pierpont Avenue and while living at this
address he suffered a broken leg from being struck by a car.
“Watchman Struck By Automobile, Hurled To Street, Badly
Hurt. Driver of Car Says Sullivan Seemed Bewildered, Claims Accident
Unavoidable. John Sullivan, 74 years of age, watchman for the D. &
R.G. at the crossing on Seventh South and Fourth West [Fifth] West ,
residing at 839 Pierpont Street, was seriously injured yesterday [August
17] at 3 p.m. when struck by an automobile driven by H. Newton Thornton in
front of the Walker Bank Building.
“Mr. Sullivan was returning from work and had just alighted
from a Poplar Grove Streetcar. He was making his way to the sidewalk when
hit by the automobile, and according to several eyewitnesses of the accident,
was dragged a distance of about twelve feet before the automobile was stopped.”
“According to Mr. Thornton, 18 Vernon Avenue, driver of the
machine, Mr. Sullivan became bewildered when he saw the approaching automobile,
and in an effort to avoid it, dodged back and forth to such an extent that it
rendered the collision unavoidable. ‘He was halfway to the sidewalk when I
first saw him’, said Mr. Thornton. ‘I was close to the gutter and seeing he was
directly in my path, I steered towards the car tracks. As I made the turn, he
became bewildered and started in the same direction. It was too late to
avoid hitting him, but I stopped my car immediately, owing to the fact
that I had been running on low gear while crossing the intersection.”
“Mr. Sullivan is partly deaf, and this is attributed as a cause
of the accident, as he was unable to hear the warning said to have been given
by the driver.”
“He was unable to give any account of the accident himself
after he was taken to the emergency hospital in the police ambulance and as
soon as his identity was established, he was removed to St. Mark’s hospital.
There his right leg and left collar bone were found to be broken and he was
severely bruised about the arms and face. There was an ugly scalp wound just
over the left temple, which was at first thought to be a fracture.”
“Mr. Sullivan has been a resident of Salt Lake for more
than thirty years. At the time the Denver & Rio Grande was constructing its
local yards, he was foreman of the gang engaged in the work. At a late hour
last night, he was reported resting easily.
Another account of the accident reported, “Ages Man Struck
By An Automobile. John Sullivan Suffers Broken Leg and Other Injuries; Driver
Not Blamed. John Sullivan, 60 years of age, living at 839 Pierpont Avenue
was struck by an automobile yesterday [Aug 17] afternoon near the intersection
of Second South and Main Streets. Hs left leg was broken ad he received several
painful cuts and bruises. He was taken to the police emergency hospital, where
he was attended by Dr. H.B Sprague, and later was removed to St. Marks’s
Hospital.”
“The driver of the automobile was H.M. Thornton of 18
Vernon Avenue. Mr. Thornton insisted that he was driving slowly at the time of
the accident. Sullivan’s statements bear out those of the automobile driver. Sullivan
said he was attempting to board a streetcar going north on Main Street and that
when he saw that he had selected the wrong car, he turned to find himself in
the path of the automobile.”
Death of Wife
Later that year John Sullivan’s wife Kate Sullivan passed
away in December 1913. “Heart Trouble Fatal To Mrs. Sullivan. Mrs. Katherine
Carey Sullivan, wife of John Sullivan of 839 Pierpont Street, died at 12:30
o’clock this morning [December 28] from heart trouble. Mrs. Sullivan has been
suffering from a complication of diseases for about two years and her death was
not unexpected. She is survived by her husband and six daughters. They are Mrs.
Andrew Cronin, Mrs. Kate Connelly, Miss Anna and Miss Myrtle Sullivan of
this city, Mrs. Edward Norton of Butte, and Mrs. William Mullins of Seattle.
Announcement of the funeral services which will be held in St. Mary’s
Cathedral, will be made later.” This announcement had an error as there were
only five daughters, and the Myrtle was mistaken for a son Michael by the
reporter.
“Catherine Carey Sullivan died Sunday at 12:30 o’clock at
the family residence, 839 Pierpont Street after being confined to her home for
three months with hip trouble. She s survived by her husband John Sullivan,
well known and one of the oldest railroad men in Salt Lake City. Six Children
also survived . They are Mrs. Andrew Cronin, wife of the local freight agent of
the Denver & Rio Grande; Mrs. Kate Connelly, Miss Anna Sullivan, and
Michael Sullivan of this city; Mrs. Edward Norton of Butte, Mont., and Mrs.
William Mullins of Seattle.”
Death of John Sullivan
Eventually, the aging John C. Sullivan went to live with
his daughter Libbie Cronin at 653 Conway Court where he lived until his death
in 1920 caused by bronchial pneumonia.
“John Sullivan, 88, died of bronchitis Monday [January 19]
at the home of his daughter Mrs. A.J. Cronin 654 Conway Avenue. He was a native
of Ireland and came to this city in 1882. He was in the hotel business here for
twenty years. He is survived by one son Michael Sullivan and five daughters,
Mrs. A.J. Cronin, Mrs. Morris Wilkerson, and Mrs. P. J . Connelly of Salt
Lake and Mrs. W.J. Mullins of Seattle and Mrs. Ed Norton of Butte. All of the
children will attend the funeral, which will be held at the Church of Our
Devine Savior Thursday morning at 10 o’clock. Internment in Mount Calvary
cemetery.”
“Funeral services for John Sullivan, 85 years of age, who
died Monday at the home of his daughter Mrs. A.J. Cronin, will be held Thursday.
Mr. Sullivan had been a resident of Salt Lake thirty-two years, coming
here with his family from Galesburg, Illinois. He was a native of Ireland
and has been engaged in the hotel business on the west side since his coming to
Salt Lake. He was taken ill several days ago on his return for the
coast.”
The Cronin Family
One of John Sullivan’s sons-in-law was Andrew “Andy “Joseph
Cronin [1871-1939]. He was a first generation American of Irish decent and was
a Clerk for the Rio Grande and Western Railway. He and his mother and brothers lived
at several residences on Third South in city Block 63 and later in Block
64.
Andy Cronin’s Irish born father, John D. Cronin, immigrated
to Pennsylvania in 1848 during the Irish Potato Famine and was the father of 15
children. After John D Cronin died in 1883, 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 soon began to
dominate the demographics of Block 63 and 64 by the 1890’s.
Andy Cronin obtained a steady job as a traffic clerk with
the Rio Grande Western in 1893 and was living with two brothers and his mother
on Third South within walking distance of his work.
In 1898 he married Elizabeth “Libbie” Sullivan, the
daughter of John Sullivan, proprietor of the Sullivan House hotel in Block 63
and the Nevada House Hotel in Block 64. They were married at St Patrick’s
Catholic Church located at 417 South Fourth
[Fifth] West.
Andy Cronin became 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 died of bronchial pneumonia in 1939.
Andy Cronin’s
brother George W. Cronin [1876-1902] also lived on 300 South for a time
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.
George Cronin 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.
Andy Cronin’s brothers
all raise large families in Salt Lake City also “which partly explained the
many people with the Cronin surname buried at the Mount Calvary Cemetery
of Salt Lake City.”
James Hegney “Business Man”
For nearly twenty years the northwest corner of Block 63,
containing Lots 5 and 6, was identified with an influential Irish American
businessman named James Hegney [1843-1907] or “Jim” as he was known to his
family and friends. Often in newspaper accounts his surname was spelled
“Hegeney.” He was instrumental in the development of Fifth [Sixth] West and
Second South between Fifth [Sixth] West and Sixth [Seventh] West as a
commercial area.
Part of Jim Hegney’s wealth in Utah certainly came from
investing in lands on the western outskirts of Salt Lake City, where in 1881,
the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad had bought up four city blocks, forty
acres, to build a passenger and freight depot and rail yards. As Mormons
dominated downtown Salt Lake and the eastern portion of the city, Hegney went
to the western outskirts of the city to make his fortune.
At that time, the west side of the city reached from
West Temple Street as far as to the Jordan River and was sparsely populated
with farmers and shopkeepers. The land was considered cheap as being a distance
from downtown. The area of the Denver & Rio Grande enterprise was also
known as the Mormon’s Fifteenth Ward which had an ecclesiastical as well as
political jurisdiction. The Fifteenth Ward was bounded between South Temple and
Third South and extended west of West Temple out towards the Jordan River.
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. Hegney was the proprietor of two hotels, the Rio Grande,
and the Albany, from at least 1885 until his death in 1907. Both hotels
contained saloons known as the “Hegney Saloon.”
He also owned the West Side Drug Store on Second South and
had built, across the street in Block 64, a commercial building on the
southwest corner of West Second South and what was then Fifth West, however now
Sixth West. Hegney additionally owned the property at what is now Seventh West
and Second South on which the “Kozy Bar” was built. This saloon would in the
1980’s, become the second incarnation of Joe Redburn’s premier gay dance club
known as The Sun.
Interestingly, Jim Hegney owned properties which
would later in the 1980’s become two gay clubs, the In-Between and the Sun. The
In-Between had many incarnations, as a dance club and music venue, before being
demolished in 2020. The Sun Club was structurally damaged in 1999 from a
tornado and the building was eventually demolished. It presently contains only
a vacant lot.
Jim Hegney was heavily involved in local progressive
politics and with fraternal organizations. He was a devout Roman Catholic.
However, when he married circa 1885, he wed a divorced woman from a family of
English Mormon converts.
Hegney’s Beginnings
Jim Hegney’s parents, Edward Hegney [1810-1878] and
Elizabeth McCord [1824-1898] were both Irish Immigrants, more than likely they
were hard scrabble, great potato famine refugees. They made their way to
Sandusky, Erie County, Ohio where they married in 1840. Hegney was born 29 Apr
1843. His father applied for naturalization in 1844 but in 1864, duplicate of
citizenship papers were issued at Sandusky, Ohio, "First is alleged to
have been lost."
During the American Civil War, when Jim Hegney was 21 years
old, he 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. He served on the USS Princeton, USS North Carolina, and the
gunboat Flambeau off the coast of North Carolina, and the schooner Dan Smith in
the coastal waters of Georgia and South Carolina.
After the Civil War ended, Hegney returned to Ohio to live
with his family. His father suffered “sunstroke while working in Edward Gill's
stone quarry” in 1878 and died from a fall.
The 1880 United States census showed that Jim Hegney was
living with his mother and his other siblings, 38-year-old William, 33-year-old
Charles, 31-year-old Mary and 28-Year-old Frank, in the town of Oxford,
in Erie County, Ohio. In that year he was 34 years old, unmarried, and working
as a farm laborer. He and his siblings were listed as single with his oldest
brother listed as lame in the hip. They were living next to Edward Gill who
owned the quarry where Jim’s father was killed. There are several errors in
this record which may suggest that a neighbor gave the information to the
enumerator rather than the mother. Jim Hegney’s sister was a married woman with
several children living in Huron County, Ohio in 1880. A brother, Joseph
Edward Hegney, is not mentioned in the household either.
An article from a Cincinnati Newspaper in 1881 mentioned
James Hegney and five other men falling from a scaffold while erecting a
hatchway on a new carriage factory. He managed to catch himself on the
side of the hatchway and did not injure himself.
After Jim Hegney became successful in Utah, he brought his
widowed mother Elizabeth to Salt Lake from Ohio circa 1895 to live with
him. One of Hegney’s married brothers, Joseph Hegney [1849-1921] also
came out west and boarded at the Rio Grande Hotel in 1892 for a time. He worked
for Jim Hegney at his properties and was even a bartender in the Albany Saloon
at one time.
After their mother died 2 Feb 1898, Joe Hegney moved away
from Utah to Denver, Colorado and eventually to Pueblo. The Salt Lake city
directory listed Jim Hegney’s mother’s death as in 1899 but that was an
error.
Jim Hegney in Utah
Sometime between 1881 and 1885, Jim Hegney headed west
where he is next found in the Green River, Utah, the site of a newly
constructed Denver & Rio Grande bridge. Hegney’s motivation for coming to
Utah Territory is unknown but it must have been for economic opportunities and
perhaps following the Denver & Rio Grande railroad as it pushed into the
territory. He would have been around 42 years old when he was in Green River.
Hegney was a Catholic at a time when the Utah Territory was
controlled by a Mormon oligarchy. In the
1880’s, mining and railroad work were the main source of employment and wealth
for “gentiles” as non-Mormons were called in the 19th Century.
Brigham Young who had died in 1877 had discouraged his
“Saints” from engaging in mining, fearing the corrupting and temporary life of
mining camps. This provided an economic incentive for "gentiles" to
exploit Utah's mineral riches. While
there is no indication Hegney worked as a miner, he would marry a 30-year-old divorced Mormon
woman who had been married to a miner.
He however he was
not working on the railroad but was operating a “gambling house”. How long he had been in Utah is unknown but
in March 1885 he was arrested along with other undesirable in an effort to rid
the town of what was seen as a bad element.
The Salt Lake Tribune mentions his arrest in a blurb from
29 March 1885. “A subscriber from Blake City (Green River, Utah) under the date
of March 27th says there was quite a rumpus there the night before caused by
the prosecuting attorney and Captain Hawley arresting James Higney and four
others for keeping a gambling house. One of the parties, named Irish, tried to
make an escape but was induced to stop by two shots from the constable’s
pistol. The examination before justice of the Peace lasted until 10 o’clock at
night. Several more arrests were expected yesterday.”
An article from the Salt Lake Evening Democrat dated 30
March 1885 gave more details regarding James
Hegney being in Utah. “Tom Farrer, the Green River constable, came to the
conclusion last week that a moral reformation was needed in that town. On
Thursday he swooped down upon James Hegney’s gambling dive, and with the
assistance of J. K. Read, county attorney, and J.T. Farrer, justice of the
peace, succeeded lodging the major portion of Green River’s fraternity behind
the bars of the Emery County jail.”
The article stated Hegney was fined $100 and he must
have left Green River after that as by July 1885, he was mentioned as residing in
Salt Lake City.
In Salt Lake City
Hegney settled in the outskirts of Salt Lake City where he
eventually amassed a small fortune in real estate and perhaps speculating in
mining. Hegney probably followed the Denver & Rio Grande route to Salt Lake
which would have landed him on Fifth [Sixth]
Not long after arriving in Utah Jim Hegney who was a
Catholic met and married a divorced Mormon woman with three children from her
first marriage. .
Elizabeth Grundy [1856-1925]
Elizabeth “Liza” Grundy was born in Farmington, Utah but
raised in Utah County. She probably married her first husband Richard “Dick”
Tyner, in Springville, Utah in 1876 where her two daughters, Eudora and Mary
Frances, were born. Eudora was born in January 1877 and Mary Frances in
September 1879.
A newspaper account stated that Dick Tyner had located the
“Opehonga Mine” in 1877 in Tintic, Utah who afterward sold it to James A
Shearer. Between September 1879 and June 1880, the family had moved to Silver
City in Juab County.
The 1880 federal census listed Dick Tyner as a blacksmith
living with wife “Liza Ann” and their two daughters in the mining town of
Silver, in the Tintic Precinct of Juab County, Utah. Other reports stated that
he was a “mine blacksmith” and a prospector.
Eliza Tyner’s older brother, William Gundy, and husband
Dick Tyner were enumerated only two households from each other. Gundy was
listed as a miner in the 1880 federal census and was affluent enough to have
two female servants. His home was large enough to board two lodgers.
The Tyner marriage did not last as Eliza Grundy separated
or divorced Dick Tyner in 1882 probably due to his being an alcoholic and
perhaps for not providing for his family. Eliza Grundy moved to Salt Lake
City with her two daughters. She was pregnant with a daughter who was born in
September 1882 in Salt Lake.
Dick Tyner remained in the Tintic area and worked as a
miner for almost all of his life. In 1893 he made a complaint in court that he
had been swindled out of his share of a mine. “Tyner explains his mistake by
saying he was weak and much confused in mind by reason of long and continued
use of intoxicating liquors, and unable to make proper calculations.”
In 1908 Dick Tyner was referred to as a “hermit” and an
“old Eureka prospector, who after being for years a charge of the county”, sold
his mine claim for $3800. Evidently he
went back to New York state to visit a sister who had him committed to a mental
institution and applied to be the guardian of his assets.
“The old man who was occasionally demented at Eureka, is
now in an insane asylum in New York State. There is no question but what Tyner
has been slightly demented for years, but no one considered his affliction in
any way serious as he was harmless as a child. The people of Eureka who have
known him for years say that he is not a fit subject for an insane asylum.”
Jim Hegney’s Blended family
Eliza and Jim Hegney were married probably in 1885 although
there is no public record of the marriage. It is even possible that she never
obtained a legal divorce from Tyner. With having to raise three daughters alone,
she may not have had too many options. After Eliza Tyner married Jim Hegney, he
raised her three daughters as his own.
Elizabeth’s daughter Sophie Hegney was born in September
1882 in Salt Lake City and was certainly the daughter of Dick Tyner although
her death certificate stated that her father was James Hegney. However, Jim
Hegney’s probated will referred to his “three stepchildren.”
Although she was raised a Mormon, Eliza later converted to Catholicism
as all the children were raised as Catholics. When she died in 1925, she had a
mass said for her in the Cathedral of the Madeleine and was buried in the
Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake.
Jim and Liza Hegney’s first child was son James Edward Hegney
born in 1887, followed by another son Charles
Francis Hegney born in 1889. Two more daughters, Maida, and Gladys were born in
1892 and 1894 which completed the family.
The Rio Grande Hotel
The name “Denver & Rio Grande Hotel” was not unique to
Salt Lake City. There were several hotels near depots of the Denver & 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 Salt Lake City “Denver & Rio Grande Hotel,”
which was shortened to just “Rio Grande Hotel” was a modest establishment. It
was located directly across from the Denver & Rio Grande Western Rail
Road’s passenger depot at 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West. Adjacent to the hotel,
at 227 South, was the Rio Grande saloon
was listed as early as 1884 in Salt Lake City directory and as the publication
had to have been printed in 1883, the saloon, and probably the hotel, were
built at least by that year.
The Rio Grande Hotel was first mentioned in an 1884
newspaper advertisement that listed for
sale “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.”
The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed that the Rio
Grande hotel was a large two-story wooden structure with an office, dining
area, and kitchen on the first floor and lodgings on the second. The hotel
included a series of wooden buildings at that time, with two additional
separate one-story buildings containing even 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 previous saloon that existed at 227
South Fifth [Sixth] West.
Due to its proximity to the depot, the hotel was a favorite
for travelers making their connections in Salt Lake and for the working
railroad men.
Jim Hegney was not the first proprietor of the lodging
house, however. There were others before he assumed management in 1885. The
first mention of Jim Hegney in Salt Lake newspapers was in July 1885 when
he was granted a license to sell liquor when he was most likely in negotiations
to become a proprietor. His experience operating a “gambling house”
in Green River may have the confidence to run a hotel and saloon.
In August 1885, a newspaper mentioned the “opening of
the Rio Grande Hotel” which probably meant it was under new management. As that
Jim Hegney had just been granted a liquor license, it is likely that he took
over managing the hotel. The paper advertized that “There will be a Ball and
Supper at the Rio Grande Hotel opposite the depot tonight.”
In October, Jim Hegney was officially mentioned as the
“proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel and Saloon” when he was granted a renewal
of his liquor license. The 1885 city directory stated his primary residence for
his young family was within the Rio Grande Hotel. Jim Hegney was also,
according to the city directory, the owner of a General Store located next to
the hotel at 237 South Fifth [Sixth] West.
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.”
Recovery of Stolen Property
The Rio Grande Hotel and Jim Hegney were mentioned in a
Salt Lake Tribune article from April 1886. The paper printed a story of Hegney’s
role in the recovery of some stolen goods taken in a robbery of a gun store
owned by Thomas Carter.
“Yesterday [3 April 1886] Mr. James Hegeney,
proprietor of the Denver & Rio Grande Hotel, called at the gun store of
Thomas Carter and told Mr. Rensheimer that he had ‘track of at least some of
the property’ stolen from that establishment.”
It appeared that a couple of men had been rooming together
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 was recovered except for a valuable
pistol.”
It was reported that 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.”
Later, two brothers, George and Charles Meakins, and a man
named Arthur Lewis were arrested for the theft. “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 from the Denver & Rio Grande depot and in this room were
found a couple of guns, belts of cartridges etc.”
George Meakins was, however, merely 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 the Meakins did not “appear very
strong and mainly circumstantial” therefore “a couple of days later the Meakins
and Lewis were released and did not have sufficient evidence to hold them.”
Jim Hegney as a Businessman
The Rio Grande hotel was so well known that by April 1887
enquiries for railroad employment opportunities were managed at the resort.
“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 Four, Block 63, Plat A.
Jim Hegney became an active member of the West Second South
business community and built connections and friendships with other local
businessmen. He was a member of the city Chamber of Commerce to which he
donated money. 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.”
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.
One of the primary ways Hegney accomplished strengthening
business ties with other businessmen 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" which 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 of The Odd
Fellows Fraternal Order 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.
Jim Hegney was a trusted saloon keeper, as those working
men frequenting the bar would have him hold some of their money “so it wouldn’t
all get used up on pay days.” His saloon was largely frequented by laborers ,
and it generally was ‘the custom’ when one man had money for him to show his
liberality by treating those who were not so ‘flush’.”
Jim Hegney was not listed in the Salt Lake City Directory
as the proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel again until 1888. 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.” As railroad wages were only between $1.75 and $3.00 per day, the
rooms were not inexpensive and often would be shared by two or more men in a
single bed.
According to a Salt Lake Herald newspaper article from
August 1888, Jim Hegney also sold ice cream most likely at his drug store .
“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.&R.G. 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.”
Mortgages
At the same time as this
transaction, James Hegney and his wife Eliza mortgaged the property back to
Cook and Glanfield for $5000. James Hegney and wife Eliza also later took out
another mortgage for $1,200 from Cook and Glanfield.
In 1889 Hegney
took out a $5000 mortgage from Rev. Abiel Leonard [1848-1903] for $5000
probably used to pay off Cook and Glanfield’s mortgage. Abiel Leonard was
Episcopal Church Bishop who succeeded Bishop Daniel Tuttle in 1885. Bishop
Leonard was the missionary Episcopal Bishop for both Nevada and Utah in 1888.
In 1891 Bishop Leonard reassigned the $5000 mortgage over to his mother Mrs.
Jeanette Leonard. In 1893 Leonard released the mortgage to James Hegney as it
had been paid in full.
In January 1890 John
Glanfield sold to Isaac Starbuck [1849-1931], a portion of a parcel in
the northeast corner of Lot Four behind James Hegney property for $1600.
However, by September Starbuck sold back the parcel to John Glanfield for
$2000.
The 1890 city directory
listed Starbuck as in “real estate” with the firm of Starbuck and Carrigan. He
was also listed as a lawyer in the firm Starbuck and Harney. Isaac
Starbuck was mentioned several times involved in horse “trotting races” and was
a deputy sheriff in his later years.
Glanfield finally sold
the rest of northeast corner to James Hegney in February 1891 for $3500
“subject to right way over parts of Lot Five”.
Hegney acquired the north half of Lot 4, Block 63, and Plat
A in February 1891 making him the sole owner of the one and one fourth acre
parcel. “John C.C. Glanfield et.ux to James Hegney, part of lot 4,
block 63 plat A $3500.” The property consisted of 10 rods [165 feet] by 10
rods. Hegney received a building permit to construct a store on this
property at the cost of $450 in December 1891.
James Hegney was now
virtually the sole owner of Lot Four although in December 1890 he had sold to
Benjamin Rowland, John Glanfield, Lewis B. Coates, and John J Corum the
right of way over his property for $1.00.
Lot Four Block 63
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed Philip Hall’s building was about a foot within the 82.5
feet by 330 feet south half of Lot Four, just barely north of Lot Three. It was
a two-story adobe structure with a brick façade and a wooden porch over Fifth
[Sixth] West. The first floor was divided between a billiards parlor and a
store while the second floor was a rooming house. Andrew W. O’Grady operated
the Colorado saloon as a “saloon keeper” within this edifice. He had just
received a license to sell liquor in July of 1885.
Forty-Five feet into the northern half of Lot Four was the
two-story Rio Grande Hotel but the map did not list an address for it. The main
building was wooden framed and located in the northwestern corner of Lot Four.
The building contained hotel rooms, an office, dining room, and a kitchen
directly behind the hotel was a washhouse and a coal storage house.
In 1889 Jim Hegney replaced his old saloon with a new brick
one at the cost of $5000. The Salt Lake Herald made a comment in October 1889,
“James Hegney’s Arcade building, opposite east from the Rio Grande Western
passenger station, is quite a pretentious structure for that part of the
city.”
The Herald reported in November, “The new brick structure
erected by James Hegney opposite the Rio Grande Western depot has been
completed and Mr. Hegney has opened an elegantly furnished saloon there. The
Rio Grande hotel is to be removed and a commodious brick erected in its stead
in early spring.”
The 1891 City directory still listed James Hegney as the
proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel located at 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West even
though an article from May 1891 stated that James Hegney was negotiating for a
lot on Third [Fourth] West Street between South Temple and Third South Streets,
for the purpose of erecting a $10,000 hotel and business block. This location
is on the Union Pacific.” The deal never materialized but he had his eye
on the property just north of the Rio Grande Hotel which had a new hotel built
in 1890.
In March 1890 Hegney bought from a Mary Tate property
containing 7 rods [115.5 feet] by 10 rods [165 feet] for $15,500 located in Lot
1 block 47, plat C Second North and Sixth [Seventh] West.
Second South Sidewalk Improvements
Jim Hegney along with others attended city council meetings
requesting improvements in the mostly neglected west side of Salt Lake. In
March 1890 Hegney and others appeared for the city and complained “that certain
sidewalks in the neighborhood of the R.G.W. depot were impassable and asked
that they be improved.” Their complaints were referred to the committee on
streets for study.
In August 1891, “James Hegney and others asked that a
sidewalk be constructed on the north side of Second South from Fifth West
[Sixth] to Seventh [Eighth] West.
James Hegney was also on the “Rio Grande and Union Pacific
Boulevard committee” in February 1893. The boulevard committee was made up of
the Businessmen’s Association who met at the Knutson 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.
Hegney was involved with the actual paving of the
dirt road of West Second South. “Second South Paving Tax Levy Ordinance May Be
Acted on by Council Tonight. The property map from the paving of Second South
Street from First [Second]West to Sixth [Seventh] West has been prepared and
the ordinance approving the tax levy will probably be passed tonight [24 June
1901] It is understood that J.E. Dooly, the Symns Utah Grocer company. Mr.
Hegney and other leading property owners will pay cash instead of installments
of the tax and thereby supply the funds for the immediate commencement of the
improvement. The Third South paving will come up at the same time and the two
contracts would bring bids from some larger paving concerns.”
The Liberal Political Party
The Liberal Party was formed in 1870 to oppose Mormon
domination of local politics via the People's Party. Though vastly outnumbered,
the party offered an opposing voice in Salt Lake City and won several local
elections. The Liberal Party, when it controlled City Hall, constructed the
city's first sewer systems, constructed the expensive joint Salt Lake City and
County Building, and established Liberty Park.
Jim Hegney was 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, in the Fifteenth Ward. The Fifteenth
Ward contained most of the “Rio Grande District” and was considered “the banner
ward of 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 & 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 gives 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 & Rio Grande Hotel opposite the D.& R. G. depot. About fifty
people assembled in the evening and “most, if not all of whom 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.”
In 1890 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 other local businessmen Harry F. Evans, L.C. Johnson, and J.J.
Corum.
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 influence waned after a major statewide defeat in 1893.
The Salt Lake Herald 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.
In February 1891 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 when 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 on
by the Salt Lake Herald, organized by “O.W. Powers, A.L. Williams, James
Hegeney, two tribune reporters and thirty-five equally reputable
citizens.”
The meeting “filled 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.
In August 1891 there was a report of “five rousing Liberal
meetings” held within the city, including one on Fifth [Sixth] West. 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.”
“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 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 to listen 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 & 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. 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.
The Salt Lake Herald Attacks on Jim Hegney
The Salt Lake Herald promoted their newspaper as
“independent and neutral,” however the newspaper “consistently reflected the
views of the Deseret News, the official organ of the Church.” As the newspaper
was founded by “Mormon Elders,” “the paper’s editorials reflected Mormon values
of the day.”
One of the founders, editor Edward L Sloan, wrote,
“When the people of Utah, their faith and institutions are aspersed, maligned
and unjustly attacked, we shall esteem it our solemn duty to present the truth
in reply, when the source is worthy a rejoinder.” Sloan was a devout convert to
Mormonism and also had three plural wives.
Editors of secular papers, nevertheless “mocked the Herald
as a mere proponent of the LDS Church. The Salt Lake Tribune’s pet name for the
Herald, for example, was the “Mormon Herald.”
The Liberal Party’s opposition to polygamy and Mormon
domination of Utah's politics made those associated with it,
written about negatively in columns of the Salt Lake Herald.
Charles W. Penrose, who spent most of his journalistic life
with the Deseret News, was the Herald’s editor from 1892 to 1899, during much
of the time the Liberal Party was at its height. In 1904 Penrose became a
Mormon Apostle.
The Salt Lake Herald was the main critic 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 imagined.”
The Herald regularly attacked the Liberal party and
sometimes Jim Hegney’s Rio Grande Saloon. The registration of the Rio Grande
District’s itinerant men, without legitimate addresses, was one of the Herald’s
main complaints. The Herald adamantly accused Jim Hegney of participating in
election fraud in favor of the Liberal Party.
“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 is 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.”
When the “hobos in City Creek” were registered to vote in
the Fourth Precinct 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.
James Hegney after being appointed in March 1893 the
district leader of the Liberal Party in the Second Precinct, the Liberal
Party’s primaries for the Fifteenth Ward were held at Jim Hegney’s Albany
Hotel.
The Salt Lake Herald then wrote a series of scathing
accounts attacking Jim Hegney as being a “Liberal Party Pet” and of voter
fraud. During the 1893 election cycle the Salt Lake Herald wrote 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 who gave his address
as 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West Street. “No one prosecuted and turned
loose.”
The Herald also wrote, “Persons who claim to speak with
authority, says that Dan Griffin, who takes charge of the waterworks department
tomorrow [August 16] , will dissolve partnership with Jim Hegney in the hobo
vote business, and that element is looking forwards to the change with
considerable uneasiness.”
The Herald anti-Liberal Party tirade continued during the
municipal fall campaigning. In October 1893, the Herald accused the liberal
Party’s sewer water main improvements on the ‘north bench’, the Avenues, was a
means of giving employment to hobos, in order, the Fourth precinct in
particular, and the city in general , might be carried by the Liberals, and
incidentally to boom property that had been purchased by real estate sharpers
during the boom!”
Referring to Liberal party candidates, “They also forgot to
mention the fact that much of the money spent did not go to ‘help keep families
in the city,’ and they know, better than anyone else, that the cash was spent
in a certain saloon and boarding house kept by a Liberal pet in the vicinity of
the Rio Grande Depot; and that it was paid to and spent by tramps who never had
a habitation in this city- save a bunk at Hegney’s.”
“They know also, that married men were laid off the sewers
and their places filled by these same hobos. They are also aware that men with
families walked the street and begged for work from the city but were refused
because they could not make a source of profit to this Liberal pet. They know
that the only passport to work on the sewers had to come from Mr. Hegney and
that he gave ‘no recommendations’ except to such as he chose .”
Another Salt Lake Herald’s diatribe 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.”
Sixteen delegates from the Fifteenth Ward met at the Albany
Hotel for the Liberal Party Primaries in October. “Several speeches touting the
virtues of the Liberal Party were made at the hotel. A speaker named P.F Ryan
condemned the organization of the federal government,” stating “how two black
spots on the fame of our country had been born and nurtured –slavery and
polygamy- how slavery had been wiped out at the cost of millions of treasure,
and hundreds of thousands of lives and the latter relic of barbarism will be
plotted out by the quiet votes of the Liberal party.”
Declaring the achievements of the Liberal Party, a man
named C. M. Jackson said, “there had been more progress in the past three years
because of the Liberal Party than there was in all the forty years before under
Mormon rule.” Another speaker, Frank Hoffman boasted “a Liberal is a
manly man who respects the flag of his country.”
A Salt Lake Tribune article called “Liberals of Two
Precincts”, dated 3 November 1893, reported that “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.”
The Herald however wrote, “Repeaters, Impersonators, Hobos-
How They Are Being Cared for by the Liberals. The population of this city is
from 700 to 1,000 more today [November 7] than it has been for some time past
or will be for some time to come.” The paper claimed the Liberal party was
importing nonresidents in an “attempt to get their votes into the ballot
box.”
“Word was received at headquarters from Helper that
yesterday’s westbound Rio Grande Western Train was loaded down with an
‘excursion ‘ party of hobos. Mr. Hegney will do a thriving business
today.”
Due to the Panic of 1893 the Liberal Party of Utah suffered
a “rousing defeat” in the November election of 1893 from which it could not
recover. 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.”
Jim Hegney had always been supportive of the Democratic
Party allowing them to meet at the Albany Hotel. 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.”
Jim Hegney hosted several political events at the Albany
Hotel regarding the “Free Silver,” political populist movement in the 1890s.
The Panic of 1893 was one of the catalysts for the movement for “populist
organizations favored an inflationary monetary policy” of free silver “because
it would enable debtors to pay their debts off with cheaper, more readily
available dollars.
Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan held that
money did not need to be "backed" by gold and “did not think it was
necessary for the United States to hold in reserve an amount of gold equal in
value to all the paper money in circulation. Bryan wanted the United States to
use silver to back the dollar at a value that would inflate the prices farmers
received for their crops, easing their debt burden. This position was known as
the Free Silver Movement.”
“Free silver became increasingly associated with populism,
unions, and the fight of ordinary Americans against the bankers, railroad
monopolists, and the robber barons of the Gilded Age capitalism era and was
referred to as the "People's Money."
Outside the mining states of the West, the Republican Party
steadfastly opposed free silver, arguing that the best road to national
prosperity was "sound money", or gold and banks and landlords and
other creditors would suffer from switching to a silver standard rather than a
gold standard. However, the most vocal and best-organized supporters were the
western states and territories where silver was mined.
A Central Silver Club was organized in 1896 by the
“enfranchised women” of Utah who pledged, “ourselves in an earnest, patriotic,
non-partisan band, pledged to use all our rights, social and political,
all our privileges and influence to the restoration of both metals at the ratio
of 16 to 1, with W. J. Bryan and A Sewell as our standard bearers.”
In 1898 The Salt Lake Herald announced a meeting at
“Hegney’s hall.” “Meeting At Hegney’s. Grand Central Club Will Capture the
Albany. The grand Central Silver Club promises there will a hot time in the old
town Tuesday night [November 1] when there will be rally at the Albany hotel at
the corner of Fifth [Sixth] West and Second South, commencing at 8
o’clock.”
“Short silver addresses will be made by Hon. B.T. Lloyd,
D.C. Dunbar, Judge Hoge, and A.J. Hall, formerly of Kentucky, Miss Claire
Ferguson will recite, and Professor Smith will render a solo on the
concholette. The Silver Glee club and the drum corps will be there , and
Olsen’s orchestra will furnish music.” The term concholette may have referred
to a string instrument like a Ukulele.
“After the meeting there will be a free dance. Mrs. George
H Wood and Mrs. James Hegney are the ladies who will attend to the reception of
other ladies. The marching club will assemble at the county headquarters on
State Street at 7:30, where they will be provided with torches, and headed by
the drum corps, will march to the hotel. Everyone is invited.”
Eliza Hegney had been mentioned earlier as sending food
items to a young man serving overseas in Manila during the Spanish American
War. On 13 October 1898 it was mentioned that “a fruit cake made by Mrs. Hegney
of the Albany Hotel was part of Thanksgiving food shipment to the Colorado
Volunteers in Manila The first box of goodies shipped from Salt Lake to Manila
was by Ed Hannigan to his son John who is in the First Colorado volunteers.”
Illegal Alcohol Sales
The majority of Jim Hegney’s legal problems dealt with his
Saloon selling liquor on Sundays and allowing “games of chance” to go on in his
establishments. By all accounts Hegney was a respected businessman but
operating a saloon had its own issues. Utah’s Blue Laws prohibited intoxicating
drinks from being served on Sunday, which regulation many saloon keepers
skirted and paid fines rather than lose business among the working class that
frequented these establishments.
In August 1886, the first mention of
Hegney of being charged with selling liquor on Sunday was recorded. However, in
December 1886, he and his bartender, a man only identified as Jones, were more
seriously charged with selling liquor on a Sunday.
In
December 1886, James Hegney and a bartender referred only as “Jones” were
arrested and “charged with selling liquor on Sunday”. James Hegney’s name was
often spelled “Hegeney” in many of these accounts. The prominence of Jim Hegney
as a business man made his arrest news worthy.
Hegney’s
attorney A.G Sutherland moved to have the case dismissed at a preliminary
hearing in 26 years old Judge George D. Pyper’s courtroom on December 30th, saying
there was no evidence that alcohol was sold on a Sunday, 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.” Sutherland concluded saying, “There
was no law in the world that could touch a man who bona fidely gave away any
drink whether intoxicating or otherwise.” The prosecutor argued against
dismissal and the hearing continued the next on New Year Eve.
A
newspaper reported, “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 had opened the hearing by the introduction of a “young fellow”, 18-year-old
William Moore who was employed by the “D. & R. G. Railway Company and
boarded at Hegeny’s Hotel.”
Late
Saturday on Christmas night, Moore and his 18 year old friend named George Tate
while working in the rail yard decided to go together into Jim Hegney’s saloon
in the early hours of Sunday. George Tate lived some distance away at 207 South
First East Street [State Street].
As
they were crossing the street, 43 years old Thomas Daniels, a night watchman
and officer for the Denver & Rio Grande railroad, asked them where they
were going as it was late at night. They
told Daniels they were going “across to the saloon” and the night watchman
joined them.
When
Moore saw his landlord and knowing of his generosity asked Hegney “for a
Christmas present” and Moore was told “to
go and get what he wanted at the bar.” Moore took a cigar and Tate helped himself to glass of soda-water. Moore swore that he “did not drink any gin,
brandy, rum, wine, whiskey or any kind of intoxicating liquor in that day at
that place” when called as a witness.
Thomas Daniels however, said that he saw that Jones was
“the barkeeper for Hegney when they entered the saloon on Sunday,” and asked
for some rum. In court he
testified “I got drunk on rum” but claimed he “paid for it on Monday morning. Besides
the night watchman, Moore and Tate, there were besides Hegney and Jones, only
two other young men in the saloon in the early hours of Sunday morning.
On Monday morning a complaint
was filed against Hegney and Jones for violating the Sunday prohibition of serving
alcohol and the men were arrested. As that Thomas Daniels was the only one who
admitted having been served alcohol either he or someone he told filed the
complaint.
All the men who were
in the saloon that Sunday were called by the assistant county Prosecutor named
“Ferguson” as witnesses at the preliminary hearing in Judge Piper’s court.
When George Tate was
called to testify, he said he was in the saloon as “We
went there together”. He mentioned how “Daniels called to Moore and myself, and
asked us where we were going. We told him we were going across to the saloon.”
When asked by court prosecutor, “What did they go there for?” Tate replied, “We
went to get a drink, what most people go there for.” When questioned further he
stated, “I took soda water. I do not know what the others drank.” He added that
the soda water “was not paid for” as it was a gift from Jim Hegney.
After Thomas Daniels admitted to having a hard drink, he
said “I know rum is intoxicating, but I have never drank enough to get drunk
on,” implying that drinking did not interfere with his duties as a night watch
man.
The prosecution called an expert witness, Dr. Jeter Clinton,
to acknowledge that a violation of the Sunday ordinance had occurred with
Daniels ordering hard liquor. Dr. Clinton
stated, “I am a physician and rum
is intoxicating.”
Another person, 19-year-old David S. Heitsman was called as
a witness by the prosecutor. He evidently was not a friendly witness as it was
reported when he “took the chair with a grin, his mild blue eyes sparked as he
faced the fierce frown of Ferguson.” Heitsman stated, “I went into Hegney’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.”
Next his friend, a hack driver named Heber Christianson
testified that he had gone to the saloon with Heitsman. Christianson claimed he
was in Hegney’s saloon “last Sunday.” He said he went in with Heitsman and some
others but said he didn’t know who let
us in” and that he only drank “sarsaparilla.”
After all the witnesses were dismissed a “lengthy argument then ensured” between the
counsels for the defense and the prosecution and at the conclusion, Judge
George D 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.”
Judge George D. Pyper
had been elected as Justice of the Peace by the Mormon “People’s Party” which
was inimical to the politics of the Liberal Party. Whether this affected Pypers
decision to have Hegney’s case go before the Grand Jury is purely speculative.
However it is clear that Judge Pyper was making an example out of Hegney he was a prominent businessman.
The Salt Lake Herald wrote of the hearing, “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.”
Hegney’s arrest was voided in February 1887, when the Grand
Jury informed the District Attorney of the Third District Court that they
ignored the charges against Hegeney and Jones for selling liquor on Sunday and
the case was dismissed. Evidently his arrest was without merit.
However, Officer Thomas Daniels’s testimony that he drank
rum in Hegney’s Saloon must have made him unpopular among the friends of Jim
Hegney as that in March 1887 he was threatened and even attacked.
According to information found in the Police Court section
of the news it was reported, “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.&R.G. 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.”
The
assault on Thomas Daniels occurred when he went into Hegney’s saloon as he “was
on the lookout for some men” and “went into a saloon to see whether any of them
were there.”
Inside
the saloon James Hegney called Daniels into the billiard room and when he “went
with Hegney” in the other room he was accosted by Robert McIntosh, an
ex-brakeman. MacIntosh, known as “Mack,” wanted Daniels to take a drink with
him but he refused. McIntosh feeling insulted, “attempted to drag him up to the
bar” to make him take a drink and “a scuffle ensued.” Hegeney immediately left the room, “that he
might not be a witness.”
During
the scuffle, both men fell on the floor with Daniels telling McIntosh that he
would arrest him for his attack. “ The rough and tumble was not stopped by any
of the lookers-on and no assistant was rendered Daniels to make the promise of
arrest.
While
the struggle continued outside into the street, “the crowd in the saloon went
outside, and when Daniels freed himself” from McIntosh, he was “assaulted by
another of the gang” a man named Thomas Armstrong.” In the “melee Daniels was badly bruised by
being kicked and beaten by both assailants.”
Eventually
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.”
The
next day three of McIntosh’s friends, Peter Newell, T.J. Martin, and Thomas
Armstrong appeared at the city jail as witnesses in McIntosh’s his behalf. However,
they were all “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.”
Robert
McIntosh was sentenced by Judge Pyper to a “term in the city jail for battery of Thomas Daniels.” In April, a
newspaper account mentioned that while white washing the ceiling of the jail,
the ladder he was using broke and he tumbled 16 feet to the floor, “but while
badly bruised no bones were broken.
As for
Thomas Daniel continued to live in the 15th Ward area and work as a
night watch man until his death in 1913 at the age of 70. He died as the result
of a locomotive engine crushing him in an accident while at work.
Two
years later a brief mention in the Salt Lake Herald Republican from April 1889
mentioned that Jim Hegney was back in police court where he paid a $10 fine
“for battery on F.F. Raymond.” Raymond
was the notorious proprietor of the Colorado Saloon which was located just
south of Hegney’s saloon on Fifth [Sixth] West.
In July 1892 “James Hegney” was arrested again during a
Sunday raid of Saloons opened on Sunday. “James Hegney pleaded guilty to a
violation of the Sunday ordinance and was fined $15.” The arrest did not
prevent him from a renewal of his liquor license in December.
In 1902 Salt Lake City had a crackdown on drug stores selling
liquor, prompted by the Liquor Dealers’ Protective Association. In
November, 21 warrants were served on various druggists and drug stores
including the West Side Drug store owned by Jim Hegney.
“Possibly none of the druggists fared worse than James
Hegney, who found himself bringing suit against himself, owing to the fact that
he runs both a saloon and a drug store, and belongs to two trade organizations.
He owns the West Side drug store and the Albany saloon near the Rio Grande
depot.”
“ When the officer serving the warrant entered Mr. Hegney
is said to have looked puzzled and is reported to be undecided whether to
affiliate with the Liquor Dealers’ Protective or the Druggist’s Association. He
is said to be still trying to discover which business pays the better. He will
appear today to fight a suit which is in part brought by himself.”
Selling liquor on Sunday was problematic for all Saloons,
especially those catering to travelers. Hegney was in trouble again in
August 1903, when 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”. Hegney appeared before
the committee to show why his license should not be revoked and was able to
retain his license.
“George Westfield, the bartender at the Albany saloon, was
gaily handing out drinks to six or seven perishing natives Sunday afternoon
[August 2] when the hand of the law fell heavily upon him. He was caught with
the goods, so he pleaded guilty. In imposing a $50 fine, Judge Diehl
announced that he had decided to raise the price of Sunday liquor selling and
congratulated Westfield on avoiding the rush and getting in while the bargain
sale was still on.”
Illegal Gambling
Gambling
that went on within his Saloons, also was a headache for Jim Hegney. It may have been
at this time that Jim Hegney obtained the complete management of the newly
constructed Albany Hotel and Saloon, 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 but
whether he was ever convicted or paid a fine is not known.
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”.
According to
1893 City 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.
Illegal Barbering
One of the
businesses operating in Hegney’s hotel was a barber shop which was essential in
a mostly transient area of men. However,
Salt Lake City had an ordinance prohibiting barbers from working on Sunday which
caused Jim Hegney trouble, first in 1888 and later in 1892, for allowing a
barbershop to operate on Sunday on his premises.
He was arrested
and charged with violation of the ordinance in 1888 which prompted a letter
from a Salt Lake visitor to the Salt Lake Herald.
“There seems to exist a very bad feeling
between the union and non-union tonsorial [a fancy word that describes the work
of those who give shaves and haircuts] artists of this city. However, the
former resorted to a very paltry trick in having Mr. James Hegney arrested this
afternoon [28 August 1888] for a violation of rules and more especially for not
raising his prices 40 per cent in advance of the old prices. The closing of
barber shops on Sunday is a very great detriment to our citizens and more so to
the traveling public and railroad men. There is not a city in the union where
there is such a restriction of closing barber shops before 12 o’clock on
Sunday, and it is quite a surprise to our many tourists to find they are
deprived of those necessaries . I hope to see on my next visit a change and
that the City Council will revoke the present ordinance for the benefit of its
many visitors. Very respectfully Visitor.”
Four years later in April 1892, the question of allowing
barber shops to be open on Sunday was discussed in the Salt Lake City council.
Jim Hegney and others asked the council to rescind the ordinance
prohibiting barbers working on Sunday. A newspaper noted that “no
reconsideration” was given and the request “was laid on the table
indefinitely.” The barber union argued that “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.”
The following July 1892 police raids for “violation of the
Sunday ordinance” against Barbershops included James Hegney’s place of
business. He pleaded guilty and was fined $15.
Interestingly, a test case of one of Salt Lake City’s
peculiar “blue laws,” that prohibited business activities on Sunday, involved
an 18-year-old barber named Henry Wadsworth Sopher.
On Sunday 16 June 1901 J.H. Bothwell, a member of the local
Barbers Union, “entered the shop of Henry Sopher which was run in connection
with the Albany Hotel and secured a haircut and a shave.” He paid 25 cents for
the shave and then the “next day he had the proprietor arrested for violating
the law.” Bothwell was upset that Sopher, a nonunion barber, was barbering on
Sunday when others were not allowed to practice their profession on that day.
In the city court, Sopher was fined “$15 and court costs”,
however “he appealed the case to the district court which sustained the lower
one”. Sopher’s attorney R.B. Shepard argued that the law was unconstitutional
as those other businesses were allowed to remain open on Sunday and contended
that shaving on Sunday is often a necessity and should not be interfered with.
The case made it all the way to the Utah Supreme Court
which ruled on the validity of the law. “The opinion upholding the law was
written by District Judge Hart who sat upon the Supreme Court bench at the time
the case was argued. His deductions and findings were concurred in, by Chief
Justice Baskin.”
On 5 February 1903, the Salt Lake Herald Republican
reported, “No Sunday Shaving-The Supreme Court yesterday declared valid the law
making it unlawful for barber shops to be open Sunday for the purpose of
transacting business. The case which was a test one was brought in the city
court almost two years ago by J.H. Bothwell, a member of the local Barbers
Union.”
The Albany Hotel and Saloon
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 began construction in 1890. 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. It was the largest
business complex on Second South according to the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance
Map on City Block 63 which included the addresses of 599 West, 597 West, and
595 West, along with several business addresses along Fifth [Sixth] adjacent
and across from the Denver & Rio Grande Depot. After the death of James
Hegney, the three addresses were designated as 579 West, 577 West, and 575 West
by 1908.
It was announced in November 1889 that the Rio Grande Hotel
was to be “removed and a commodious brick erected in its stead early in the
spring.” However, it wasn’t until August 1890 that the “Carroll and Kern”
architectural 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 to be a two-story building, 165 feet by 50 feet. “The contract
price is $18,000. It will contain a large lodging house and nine stores.”
During the initial construction, in September 1890, an
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 had separated the two structures, so it came crashing down on the Rio
Grande.
“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 where 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 to the Rio Grande amounted to about $3,200, with
Kullak, Burke, and Daly “footing the bills.” The accident must have caused the
builders to reconsider the design as the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showed
that Albany was a wooden structure, with only the south wall that had fallen
built 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 [actually West], and known as the Albany,
is the center of a trading quarter, being the scene of nine 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 was named most likely, after the premier
Albany Hotel located in Denver which had an excellent national reputation for
accommodations for travelers.
An advertisement for the Albany Hotel located at 597 West
Second South was placed in the City 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 cents. Cor. Fifth [Sixth] West and Second South
Streets Salt Lake City. Henry Bridgeford, Manager.”
The Albany Hotel would
have been under construction during 1890 as that the hotel was operational by
April 1891. The Salt Lake Herald Republican featured a newspaper story dated 11
April 1891, called “A Pretty Crook,” regarding a woman who had stayed at the
hotel.”
“The woman and her male
accomplice were said to have been registered at the Albany Hotel as “A.W.
Murray and wife in the western part of the city.” Her alleged “husband”
evidently had stolen money from the Rio Grande lumber yard, located at 336 West
Second South.”
“the newspaper account
continued stating, “The woman who gives her name as Hannah Moore waited at the
hotel for some time and then started out with a lot of valises. She went out
towards Fishers Brewery and about dusk, Murray called for her with a buggy.
They then started for the Rio Grande Western depot and were met at that place
by Officer Tommy Daniels who was waiting for them."
"Daniels seized the horse by the bits when Murray
hit him a welt over the head with the whip, jumped out the buggy and
disappeared. The woman was taken to the police station and in the valises was
found a lot of chisels, skeleton keys, and other burglar’s tool. Murray was
evidently a professional crook, and every effort was being made to capture
him.”
The 1892 city directory listed Henry Bridgeford as managing
the restaurant of the Albany hotel where he was residing at the corner of Fifth
[Sixth] West and Second South. The 1893 city directory however listed
Bridgeford as a ‘laborer’ boarding at 595 West Second South
The 1892 and 1893 City Directories listed Jesse P Osborne
as the manager of the Albany Hotel at 597 West Second South. . A newspaper
account from May 1892 mentioned that “Matt Murphy, a railroad man who roomed 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 City 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 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 article: “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. Burke & Daley owned
building that 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 Five 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 City 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.
The Murder of Hegney’s Friend John Egan
In 1897 newspaper articles interviewed Jim Hegney regarding
the murder of John Egan as they were well acquainted. “John Egan, a well-known
former proprietor of the White House bar, was found dead in the alley at the
rear of the Senate Saloon at 262 South Main about 4 o’clock yesterday
morning [July 11]. That he was murdered, the officers who spent yesterday at
work on the case asserted positiveness, and they believe with equal certainty
that the tragedy was enacted in a little wine room at the back of the
Saloon.
“There was probably no one in Utah who knew John Egan
any better than did James Hegney, who keeps the Albany Hotel, near the Rio
Grande Western depot. Egan made Hegney’s place his headquarters while in town,
and had a room there up to the time, he was killed. Mr. Hegney spoke yesterday
[July 11] in glowing terms of his friend’s good qualities and shuttered as he
thought of his awful death.”
“Why, it was only Friday night [July 9], he said, that he
came to me, his face beaming with smiles, and told me that Mr. Bancroft had
secured a place for him on the Short Line at Pocatello. He didn’t say what kind
of a job it was but seemed to be tickled at the prospect of getting work.”
“He had been at the house this last time about a month and
was at Pleasant Valley Junction before that. Saturday morning between 9 and 10
o’clock he came downstairs from his room, walked into the bar, and took a drink
from the bartender. At this time, he stated that he was expecting money from
Nephi. I think that he and old man Flood had some young cattle there which they
sold. Egan’s mentioned his money matters to me several times and seemed
to want to remind me that his intentions were all right so far as paying me was
concerned. Whether he received this money or not, I don’t know, for after
getting his breakfast, he went out and I never saw him again.”
“He had a very valuable watch and chain which were
presented to him some time again, but I don’t think he wore them. He had a
cheaper watch and chain which he usually wore. If he was wearing this watch
last night and did not have it this morning, then he was robbed, for I don’t
think he would have pawned it. His effects are in a valise in his room and have
not been touched yet.”
“He had domestic troubles, continued Mr. Hegney, I do not
know exactly when he was married. His wife was a niece of James Hammill, an
ex-roadmaster of the Rio Grande Western. They have two boys, 6 and 8 years of
age. They have had considerable trouble of one kind or another . About two
years ago, his wife ran away with a fellow named Ed Tracey, better known as
‘Blackie.’ He was a tinhorn gambler, but Mrs. Egan seemed to be infatuated with
him. They went to Texas, but after they were there some time Egan found out
their whereabouts and went after her. She returned with him, when she suddenly
left him again and they have been separated ever since. Egan hated ‘Blackie’
intensely. He told me recently that he saw him in Mercur about a month ago.
There is one strange thing about this matter. His wife probably knew he was
going to get some money and wanted a division of it.”
The West Side Drugstore
Jim Hegney built a business complex on the northeast
portion of his property on Lot 5 fronting 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.
The Westside Drug store attracted to individuals, Dr.
William McCoy who had a practice upstairs and operated a drug store on the main
floor with a clerk named Frank Collins. In late February and March, a scandal
involving Dr. McCoy had Jim Hegney placing in July 1896, a wanted advertisement.
“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 the scandal at his drug store involving Dr.
William McCoy and a young girl who died from the effects of an abortion.
Lawsuit Hegney vs. the State Insurance Board
At the end of the 19thCentury 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 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.
Mining Interests
As well as his many real estate holdings, Jim Hegney must
have had some mining interests also, according to an 1898 article,
“Prospecting the Hercules. Arrangement with the Ajax having been made whereby
the owners of the Hercules will be allowed to further prospect the later ground
through the former’s workings. Mr. Hegney , who was in the city yesterday
[February22] , will begin preparations at once for the commencing of the
work.
The Twentieth Century Begins
At the turn of the Century, Jim 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.
Valentine Clays Miner
Hegney was mentioned in 1901 in an article about the
disappearance of a man named Valentine Clays, “who left the city about three
weeks ago [December 1] and who has not been heard from since.”
“James Hegney, an old school chum of Mr. Clays said
yesterday [December 20] that he saw him on the morning when he is supposed to
have left for Alta. It was between 9 and 10 o’clock and Mr. Hegney says Clays
had stated to him that he would go that day as far as Brown’s ranch at the
mouth of Cottonwood, where he keeps his horses pastured, and would ride to Alta
the next morning.”
“Since that time Mr. Hegney has not heard from Clays but
supposed he was at the mine, and still believes that he is there. He further
states that if Clays has not reached the mine that George Ristine who’s working
there, would have come to the city long before this time as he was about to
come when Clays left not wishing to remain at the mine alone.”
“He also said that he heard a great many slides had
occurred in the neighborhood of the mine. He believes Clays and Ristine are not
even attempting to go to Alta for their mail on this account.” Clays
returned to the city on Christmas eve and confirmed what Hegney had speculated.
A Rise of Crime in the Rio Grande Neighborhood
Police reports showed that by 1892 that the area of Fifth
[Sixth] West was noted for robberies and assaults, perhaps due to the number of
Saloons on the street.
In September 1892 Dave Hirschler a liquor merchant must
have been operating the Saloon in the Albany Hotel as an article stated “Hirschler’s
till at the Albany saloon was relieved of $40 yesterday morning [September 21]
In October 1892 at the Rio Grande Hotel, “Young
Sullivan a character who has been under police surveillance for some months was
placed in the city jail last night [October 20] on a charge of fighting. He
made a brutal attack on John Draw, an aged laborer, near the Rio Grande Hotel
and was arrested by Officer Milner. Sullivan is a would-be pugilist and though,
but 17 years of age is the leading spirit in a gang who have bothered the
police near the Rio Grande dept for more than a year. Draw was arrested also
for fighting and getting drunk.”
“A man giving the name of William Jones was arrested last
evening [13 November 1893] on the charge of malicious mischief. It is alleged
that he willfully ran his umbrella through a window in Jim Hegney’s saloon
doing damage to the extent of $7. He will have a hearing before Justice Gee
today.” In July 1894, the fight between Neil Love and a traveling salesman who stabbed
Love made headlines in newspapers.
Shortly after Christmas 1895 “G. T. Boyd, who threw a rock
through the window of Hegney’s saloon was sentenced to ten days or $10.” “The
usual number of holiday scraps occurred yesterday [December 25] and the usual
number of holiday drunks were arrested. G.T. Boyd was in the toils for engaging
in a few fistic rounds with a drunken reveler and for mischievous behavior in a
general way.”
1898 Early this morning [June 2] three masked men entered Hegney’s
saloon, near the Rio Grande Western depot, and held up the bartender. Two of
the men entered the saloon while one of them remained outside to guard. The two
who entered pointed guns at the bartender and made him hold up his hands. One
of them went behind the bar and rifled the cash register and drawers, secured
about $140 in cash.
They then backed out of the saloon and disappeared into the
darkness. The police were immediately notified, and the officers were soon on
the scene, but no trace of the men could be-found. The hold-up was a daring one
and showed that the men knew their business.”
Another comment about the robbery stated, “The vicinity is
a favorable one for such a deed, as the railroad yards are just at hand.”
A day later the Salt Lake Tribune receipt a letter alleged
from Butch Cassidy stating that he and his gang had committed the
robbery.
Cyrus Lyman “Lineman”
In July 1900 there was this report of a man was found
knocked unconscious in front of the Albany Hotel. “Was Knocked Unconscious
Brass Knuckle Blow Given a Man in Front of the Albany Hotel- An unknown man was
knocked unconscious in a fracas in front of the Albany Hotel on Fifth
[Sixth] West and Second South.”
In September 1900, “a telegraph lineman, lodging at the
Albany Hotel, was beaten and robbed of $25 on rowdy Commercial Street
about a mile and a half from where he lived. He was found unconscious by
his friends who took him back to his room at the Albany Hotel. The police
didn’t believe he was beaten so severely simply for a robbery.”
“UNCONSCIOUS ON STREET MAN FOUND WITH HEAD CUT IN
SEVERAL PLACES-Unhappy Experience of Cyrus Lyman Lineman on Commercial Street-
Last Night [September 24]Lying unconscious with an ugly welt over his right
eye, Cyrus Lyman a telegraph lineman was picked up on Commercial Street by
friends last night. He was conveyed to his room at the Albany Hotel regaining
consciousness enroute.”
“Dr. Fisher was called in and upon examining the injured
man, he found him suffering with several small cuts about the head besides the
bruise over his eye. Lyman who had been drinking could not give clear or a
connected account of how he came by his wounds.”
“Office Fitzmaurice was summoned, and the lineman informed
him that he had been knocked down and robbed of all his money, $25.75 in cash.
He could give no description of his assailants nor any of the details connected
with the assault. It was evident that he had been severely beaten but the
police consider it doubtful that such an assault would be made for the purpose
of robbery.”
Lack of Patrol Men
In a 22 January 1903 Salt Lake Tribune article called
“Burglary on West”, the paper reported on a break-in at Hegney’s 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.”
Another robbery occurred in 1904. “Daring Robber Foiled.
Attempted to Enter Room of Drunken Man and Steal $60 From him. An attempt was
made to rob the Albany rooming house on Fifth [Sixth] West and Second South
streets yesterday morning [11 February 1904] about 4 o’clock. The bartender in
the Albany saloon came out through the rear of the building just as the man was
raising the window.’
The burglar jumped
off the ladder and ran through the block in the rear of the boarding house. The
police were notified. They could not find the would-be burglar. The window
through which he attempted to make his entrance led to a room occupied by a
drunken man. The officers tried to awaken, but could not, so the door had to be
pried open. The man was finally aroused from his drunken slumbers but knew
nothing of what happened. His room was searched and $60 found under his pillow.
The police believe the burglar knew the man was in a drunken condition
and thought he could easily get the money.”
A few days later on 14 February 1904 an article mentioned
another theft at the hotel “Porter Robs Jap- Charles Harris, a porter employed
until yesterday [Feb 13] morning in the Albany hotel, on west Second South
Street, is believed to be in alliance with the Russians.” This comment referred
to the Japanese and Russian War.
“ James Hegney,
proprietor of the hotel, reported to the police this morning that Harris
absconded with a $20 gold coin, the property of a Japanese dishwasher, also
employed at the hotel. The subject of the Mikado reported to Mr. Hegney that he
had given Harris the coin to have it changed. Harris , he said changed the coin
from the pocket of the Japanese to his own and kept the change.”
O.J. Long’s Suicide
O J Long a foreman employed by the Western Union Telegraph
who had been staying at the Albany Hotel committed suicide in May 1904 after
losing $400 money by gambling which he had embezzled from his company.
When asked about his knowledge O J Long, James Hegney said
he “remembered a significant conversation which he held with Long two weeks
ago. Mr. Hegney asked Long concerning a lineman who they had both known years
before. Long replied; ‘Oh, he embezzled some money from the company and then
went down to Texas and drowned himself in a river. That is just what I would do
if I were in his place.
A Midnight Robbery
Shortly after opening at Midnight on a Monday after the
Sunday closing, the Albany Saloon was robbed in July 1904. “Masked Robbers Hold
Up Saloon. Waited for Place to Open and Then Entered the Albany and Stole $23.
Three masked men with formidable guns entered the Albany saloon at 12:15
yesterday and succeed in holding up the place to the tune of $23 And a gold
watch worth $40.”
“O.B. Cooper, the bartender, had just opened up and was
counting the money in the till. Jim Welsh was standing at the end of the bar
when three men entered. He tried to make a break for the door leading to the
hotel, which is over the saloon, when the smallest of the three robbers got the
drop on him. He was then pulled into the center of the room and searched. Only
$9 belonging to the proprietor, James Hegney, was taken. The rest belonged to
Mr. Cooper, as well as the gold watch and chain. The other man lost some small
change.”
“The robbers did not attempt to be rough although at one
time both the victims feared they would suffer violence. The men differed in
height, the tallest being about six feet. All were masked.”
“ During the time these were inside, it seems that a fourth
man was watching the outside, as one of the night watchmen for the Rio Grande railroad
declared that about the time, he saw a man standing outside the saloon.
Sometime previous he had seen four men sitting together in the vicinity of the
depot.”
“From the fact that the guns carried were small, it would
seem that the men were novices at the game. ‘But you bet they didn’t look very
small as the time,’ says Jim Welsh. They tried to get a ring from Mr. Cooper’s
finger but could not get it off.”
“As soon as the hold-ups had gone the bartender woke the
proprietor who fired his gun to attract the attention of the night watchman for
the railroad. Soon after the patrol wagon came down from the police station,
and Sergeant Eddington made an investigation, but no trace of the robbers could
be found.”
A less detailed account of the robber wrote, “Saloon Hold
Up. Masked Men Enter the Albany , Securing Money, and a Gold Watch. The Albany
Saloon near the Rio Grande Depot was held up last midnight [18 July 1904] by
three masked men, who made their escape after securing $23 and a gold watch
valued at $40.”
“The bartender O.B. Cooper had just opened the doors and
was counting the cash when the three bandits entered, leveling guns at the
bartender and got a bead on the only other man in the house, Jim Welsh. They
were both stood up in the corner and searched, while the third member of the
gang scraped the till. The proprietor, James Hegney lost only the $9 cash on
hand. The watch and remainder of the money belonged to Cooper, except some
small change which Welsh had.”
“The robbers were not rough, probably because they
encountered no resistance. It is supposed that a fourth member stood outside
and watched.”
“After the men disappeared Cooper called the proprietor and
the police patrol rushed to the scene nut without effect.”
A later article from a few days later stated that the
police arrested a man named Orson Fitzgerald on suspicion of being connected
with the robbery but a few days later he turned out to be “a very harmless
sheepherder, who suffered through unfortunate associations.”
Suicide of Harry J. Joshlyn
“ An unknown man attempted to commit suicide early Tuesday
morning [29 November 1904] and at noon was hovering between life and death.”
“The man who looks like a laborer, walked into James’
Hegney’s saloon at 597 West Second South Tuesday morning, about 8:30 o’clock
and without saying a word to anyone, seated himself in a chair in the
barroom. He had no sooner seated himself than he fell to the floor unconscious.
Efforts were made by the bartender to arouse him, and when these failed the police
were called.”
“Sgt Roberts and Patrolman Lincoln went to the saloon in
the wagon and found the man lying on the floor in a stupor. He was loaded into
the wagon and taken to the city jail, where Dr. C.F Wilcox and C.M Benedict did
all in their power to save him.”
“The man had taken a large quantity of opium, and Dr.
Wilcox said that the chances were against his recovery.”
“He has the appearance of a Finn. Is about five feet
ten inches tall and weighs about 180 pounds. He is smooth shaven and was
wearing a black coat, army trousers, with overalls drawn over them, and a white
army shirt.”
“There was nothing in his pockets by which he could be
identified except two requisitions, or bills for goods, both bearing the words
‘Josh-Keyting & Anderson 130 North First West.”
The man was eventually identified as a deserter from the
United States Army named Harry J. Joshlyn, “who had “recently
enlisted in the United States Army at Fort Duchesne” where “he remained in the
service only a few days as that he had trouble with an officer and if he was
caught having deserted, he would get a term of ten years in the
penitentiary.”
“ Fearing that he would be captured, and court martial for
insubordination to an officer, Harry J. Joslyn, committed suicide yesterday in
James Hegney’s saloon, 597 West Second South Street, by taking a large dose of
morphine. The seriousness of his crime is not known nor what regiment he
belonged , although it is understood he was a member of one of the companied of
the Twenty-ninth infantry stationed at Fort Douglas.”
“While he has been in Salt Lake he has lived in
concealment. Several time since he came to the American House [49-51 East
Second South] about three weeks ago he has left the city for a day or so.
Day before yesterday [November 29] while talking to W.F. Beecher, the
proprietor of the American house, he said he had been located and unless he
could get out of town he would be caught and imprisoned for ten years. He
intimated to Beecher that he intended to leave town yesterday and that he would
kill himself rather than be captured.”
At the morgue Sergeant Gelden of the Twenty-ninth infantry
from Fort Douglas could not identify him.”
“Last night it was learned that Joshlyn was a deserter from
Fort Duchesne, but no definite information could be obtained. Beecher knew very
little about him as he refused to register when he first came there, but
afterwards gave his name and said he was born and reared in Grand Meadows,
Minnesota.
Joshlyn was at the Rio Grande Western passenger station
about 5 o’clock yesterday morning and a half hour later he walked into Hegney’s
saloon a block away. He asked for a drink of whiskey, complaining he was sick.
The whiskey was refused him, and he staggered to a chair in the rear of the
place. A moment later he fell onto the floor in a stupor and the bartender was
unable to arouse him.”
Sergeant [John J.] Roberts and Officer [Frank G.] Lincoln
were called, and Joshlyn was taken to the emergency hospital at the city jail.
Drs. C. F. Wilcox and C.M. Benedict were summoned to attend him, but they
were unable to revive him in the least, and after lingering in a stupor until 2
o’clock in the afternoon he died.”
“It was fully an hour after he had taken the drug before
medical assistance was given him and he was in a precarious condition.”
“Nothing was found on his person that would disclose his
identity and it was not until late last night that Beecher identified him as
the man who roomed there and gave his name as Joshlyn. He wore a pair of
soldier’s trousers under his overalls and he also had a suit if government
underclothes on. The only thing that was found on him was a miner’s
candle stick and a piece of paper which was a receipt for a load of lumber that
had been delivered to Keyting & Anderson last April at 130 North First West
Street.”
“The authorities will probably turn his body over to the
government officials.”
W. B. Randall’s January 1905 Robbery
The next year later in January 1905, two masked men held up
the Albany saloon only absconding with $4 of $5 from the cash register. George
Blundell, who was the bartender said that 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 said to have been “slender and well
dressed.”
The Albany bartender George Blundell quit that job and
became a travel agent in 1906 and the 1907 City Directory stated that Blundell
had moved off to Boise, Idaho.
The County Attorney Christensen on January 25 issued a
warrant for the arrest of W.B. Randall, “charging him with perpetrating a
holdup in the Albany saloon at an early hour in the morning Jan. 10. It is said
that one of the men robbed will identify Randall as the man who committed the robbery.”
“Alleged Robber Under Arrest. What the Police department
considered a good capture was made by Sergt. Dick Eddington and Patrolman Jim
Williams Tuesday night [Jan 24], when W. B. Randall was taken into custody.”
“Randall had been under suspicion for several days, and the
police concluded Tuesday night that they had evidence enough in hand to justify
his arrest.”
“No charge has been preferred against Randall on the Police
Court docket, but it is said that he has been positively identified as one of
the men who entered James Hegney’s saloon about a week ago and after forcing
eight or nine patrons of the place against the wall robbed the men and the till
of the saloon.”
“A complaint will probably be filed against Randall
Wednesday afternoon charging him with robbery.”
Randall was a ‘booster, employed at the Green Light
gambling house on Commercial Street” when arrested. He was eventually released
in March 1905 and the case dismissed because there was not enough evidence to
convict him.
An Italian Vendetta
In March 1906 “An old vendetta broke out again last week in
Salt Lake City when Michael Angelmo, an Italian, was stabbed probably fatally
with a dirk knife in the hands of George D Giovanni, another Italian, who lived
in the rear of Angelmo’s house at 568 South Fifth [Sixth] West.”
“Angelmo and
Giovanni met yesterday [March 20] in Hegney’s saloon, according to statements
made by several Italians.” Where Giovanni accused Angelmo’s wife of stealing
wood from him, “the men then went into the street where they continued their
wordy battle. Words soon led to blows and in the trouble that Followed Giovanni
is alleged to have drawn a stiletto and stabbed Angelo in the abdomen. The
stabbing took place in front of James’s Hegney’s saloon.”
Stabbing of George Salmon by James Gillespie
Another stabbing occurred in November 1906 at the Albany
saloon without as much news coverage as the Italians had in March. A young man
named George Salmon was stabbed in a saloon brawl in Salt Lake City by James
Gillespie. Both were railroad workers and were intoxicated at the time of the
stabbing which “resulted from an argument over some trivial matter.”
“In a row at Hegney’s saloon near the Rio Grande depot,
shortly after 11 o’clock today [November 12] James Gillespie, a young man about
22 years of age drew a knife and stabbed his opponent, George Salmon, a few
inches below the heart. The wound inflicted bled profusely and gave the
bystanders the impression that the man was fatally injured. He was taken to St.
Mark’s hospital, where the wounds were dressed and found not to be so dangerous
as at first feared. Shortly after being cared for, Salmon was permitted to
leave the hospital.”
“During the excitement cause by the stabbing,” Gillespie
made his escape. “Officer [George] Harris was soon upon the scene and was told
that the man wanted had gone south from the saloon. Harris went to the only
rooming house he could find locally but could get no answer to his rings for
admittance. He finally entered the house uninvited and began a search. In a
back room lying upon a bed and apparently fast asleep Gillespie was found and
it required vicious shakes on the part of the officer to awake the man. He
feigned innocence of wrongdoing as he feigned to be asleep, but Harris
knew that he had the right party, and it was not long before Gillespie was
occupying a cell in the city jail.”
“In the event of Salmon’s recovery, which seems quite
probable, a charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to do bodily
harm will be preferred against his assailant, but in case the wounded man dies,
the charge will be murder.”
“A spirit of carelessness was manifested on the part of the
officers at police headquarters. They didn’t not know the name of the wounded
man, were conflicting in statements as to what hospital he had been taken to
and knew absolutely nothing of the cause of the trouble, and this too, an hour
and a half after the stabbing took place.”
“On the motion o Assistant County Attorney Job Lyon, the
charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to do bodily harm against G.
Gillespie was reduced to assault and battery before Judge Diehl this morning
[November 15].”
Gillespie entered a plea of guilty to the charge and was
sentenced to pay a fine of $50 or spend a like number of days in the city jail.
In the original complaint Gillespie was charged with having made an assault
with a pocketknife on George Salmon in the Hegney Saloon on the morning of
November 13. The knife entered the left breast of Salmon just above the heart.
The wound proved to be not serious, and it is understood that Salon refused to
prosecute.”
Patrick Hegney
A man named Patrick Hegney [1856-1915] also resided at the
Rio Grande Hotel at the same time as Joe Hegney. He was listed as a laborer.
Patrick Hegney does not appear to be a brother of Jim or Joe, but he also lived
in Salt Lake at least by 1890 and at the Rio Grande from 1892 to 1893 according
to city directories. "Hegney, Patrick, laborer, boards 221 South 5th
West."
Pat Hegney testified in court that he was born in Ireland
and most likely he was a cousin to Jim Hegney. In December 1890 Patrick
Hegney appeared in the Salt Lake Police Court on a charge of drunkenness and
was sentenced to ten days at hard labor.
Patrick Hegney was in the newspapers again in February 1892
when the Salt Lake Tribune was sued by an election official named Arthur
Brown after publishing Patrick Hegney’s complaint had that Brown had prevented
him “a legal voter, from voting.”
Pat Hegney reported that Brown had made
“Unlawful and Improper Means, menaces, and threats to drive” him “out and
away from Salt Luke city for the improper and illegal purpose of preventing”
Hegney “from prosecuting the plaintiff for improperly and illegally depriving
him of his vote at said election, and to save himself from liability there from.”
After the Tribune published Hegney’s accusations, Brown sued the Tribune for
libel.
Arthur Brown sued the Tribune for $25,000 claiming the
paper libelous. “This action is the result of at the publication of an article
in yesterday [February 17] Tribune which Mr. Brown alleges to be ‘false
malicious, scandalous and defamatory.’
“Patrick Hegney a laboring man called at the Tribune office
last evening and related a somewhat peculiar but no doubt truthful tale. He has
been a resident of this city during the past fifteen months and has worked as a
stonemason’s helper for Cheiton & Mahoney and on buildings erected by
Kelsey & Gillespie. For the past few months and up to Monday last he was
employed by the city, and on February 8 he resided in the Fourth precinct.”
“On that day he attempted to vote a Liberal ticket at the
polls of that precinct, but it was rejected by Arthur Brown. Last night, so he
says while walking on Main Street, he was approached by that individual, who
informed him that if he wished to avoid trouble, he had better get out of town
forthwith, to which Hegney replied that so long as he was able to pay his
way no man could order him out of town. The interview was of the
horse-and-horse kind, but it shows that election suits are not relished by the
bulldozing autocrat.”
Arthur Brown charged that “his reputation and standing in
Salt Lake City and other places has been injured to the extent of $25,000, and
he demands judgment against the defendant in that sum and court costs.
The lawsuit continued into November 1894 when it finally
went to trial, and Pat Hegney was called to testify. “The celebrated case of
Arthur Brown vs. The Tribune, which a Salt Lake Attorney bases a $30,000 damage
claim on an article in which he was referred to as a bull-dozing autocrat, was
resumed before Judge Merritt, yesterday [November 19] morning. That the
public is taking a lively interest in the case was indicated by the attendance
, which filled the courtroom.”
“Patrick Hegney was called it had been charged that he was
a fictitious personage but he presented the appearance of a very able-bodied
myth as he took the stand.”
“On cross examination the witness outlined his travels from
Ireland where he was born.” When asked where he lived in 1892, he
answered “I boarded with sirs Mrs. Brunker on H street, a tent not in a house.”
When he was asked “can you read and write” he replied very little besides my
own name.”
Arthur Brown won a judgment of $3500 against the Tribune
that was appealed, and Pat Hegney is no longer found in Salt Lake City
directories. He more than likely became a miner.
The 1910 federal census enumerated “Pat Hagen, 55, single,
miner, born in Ireland” as residing at Mardis in Elko County, Nevada
boarding with Howard McKinsey. He stated he emigrated in 1882. He is
probably the “Patrick Hagney” who died in Park City, Utah on 8 February 1915,
age about 59. This Patrick Hegney was a miner and prospector and died from
"chronic alcoholism".
Jim Hegney's Death
The last few years of his life Jim Hegney was able to enjoy
some leisure time. The St. Louis World Fair had opened in April 1904 to
celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. An article in the
Intermountain Catholic from June 1904 wrote, “James and his sons James Jr. and
Charles, left last week for an extended visit to St. Louis”, while his
stepdaughter “Mrs. Thomas Lamplough left during the week to visit relatives and
friends in Omaha and Denver.
In July it was reported that “Mrs. James Hegney with the
children and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lamplugh expected to visit St. Louis in
September.
The Hegneys were members of the St. Patrick parish, and in
1906 it was reported that “The ladies of the Altar society of St. Patrick’s
church gave an ice cream and strawberry festival at the residence of Mr. and
Mrs., James Hegney last Tuesday [June 19]
The Albany Hotel was Jim Hegney’s last residence when he
died in 1907. Towards the end of his life, he witnessed the change of his
“lodgers” from being a “respectable” cliental to a 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 newspapers.
Salt Lake Telegram reported on 28 Feb 1907, “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."
The Salt Lake Herald on the same day wrote: “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. Father Curran will celebrate a high requiem mass. Father Kelly and old
friends of the deceased will preach the funeral sermon. Interment will be in
Mount Calvary.”
The Intermountain Catholic printed an obituary 2 March 1907
“The death of James Hegney, which occurred Wednesday [Feb 27], brought sorrow
deep and sincere to the hearts of all who knew him and his estimable family.
His illness lasted about a month and the immediate cause of death was a severe
case of la grippe. He was a native of Sandusky, Ohio, and was in his
sixty-third year. For nearly twenty-five years, Mr. Hegney resided in Salt
Lake, and was considered one of Salt Lake’s most prominent and successful
businessmen. For several years past he was proprietor of the Albany Hotel and
Fifth West and Second South. The deceased was a man of most sterling worth and
honest character. Always a careful businessman, shrewd, cautious in all
business dealings, he was a most generous and kindly friend to those in need.
Many kindly deeds have been done by ‘Jim’ Hegney, but so quietly and humbly
that only those nearest to him ever knew the depth of his kindness of heart.
A widow and five daughters, three of who are married, and
two sons survived him. The two younger daughters are Maida and Gladys , the two
sons James and Charles and the three married daughters, Mrs. Thomas Lamplugh,
Mrs. Frank Conrad, and Mrs. Thomas Charlton.
The funeral will be held from St. Mary’s cathedral Friday
morning at 9:3o o’clock. High requiem mass will be celebrated. Father Kiely, an
old friend of the deceased will preach the sermon. Interment will be in Mount
Calvary.
To the sorrowing wife and children is extended the earnest
sympathy of all. May God comfort them in the loss of the good husband and
father. May his soul rest in peace!”
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.
“The will of the late James Hegney was filed in the
district court today [25 March 1907] for probate. The estate consists or real
and personal property valued at $50,000. The will and codicil provide that the
property be held in trust by Mrs. Hegney and Bishop Laurence Scanlan. It is to
be used by the widow and children until the youngest is 21 years old, when it
is to be equally divided.”
“Another codicil bequeaths $1000 each to his three
stepchildren and allows his brother the use of property in Erie County, Ohio
for life.”
After the death of James Hegney, his widow Eliza and
children 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
seedy ‘rooming house’ for mostly single “foreign” men who immigrated to Salt
Lake City during the first decades of the Twentieth Century.
In April 1908 Eliza Hegney and her unmarried children moved
into a 10-room house located 32 South 400 East. She remained there until 1919
when she sold the house.
Eliza Hegney traveled extensively with her youngest
daughters to Southern California and even Hawaii. While gone to stay in Venice,
California, In December 1916 Eliza Hegney’s home on 400 East was robbed of over
“$100 worth of jewelry” and cut glass “including one vase, a fruit bowl, two tea sets, a spoon
tray, a celery dish and two olive dishes.
In September 1919 when the Albany Hotel caught on fire, she
was visiting Pueblo, Colorado as she had put her house up for sale and its
contents. In October 1919 she sold the “beautiful furniture of her 10 room home
consisting of all high-grade furniture and finest quality of extra heavy large
carpets, Birdseye, oak, walnut and mahogany furniture, Large mirrors, inlaid
linoleum, tools, bric-n-brac and 1 fine Ruud hot water heater.”
The 1920 Federal census showed Eliza Hegney staying at a
hotel on Olive Street in Los Angeles, California. There is no mention of her
after this census and she may have been staying with her five daughters who
were all married by 1920.
Eliza Hegney died 11 April 1925 at her daughter Frances
Charlton’s residence at 2786 Highland Drive in the Sugar House area. There was
no obituary printed for her, just a funeral announcement.
“ Funeral services for Mrs. Eliza Hegney, well known
resident of this city, who died at the family residence Saturday, will be held
tomorrow morning at the Cathedral of the Madeline. The funeral cortege will
leave the residence No. 2786 Highland drive at 9 o’clock a.m. and will proceed
to the church, where mass will commence at 9:30 a.m. Friends wishing to see the
body may do so this afternoon and evening (Monday) at the residence, and tomorrow
morning prior to the departure for the church. Interment will be in the family
plot in Calvary cemetery under direction of O’Donnell & Co.”
Jim Hegney’s Children and Descendants
James Hegney only had the two sons, James Edward Hegney,
and Charles Francis Hegney. He had three stepdaughters Mrs. Eudora Lamplugh,
Mrs. Mary Charlton and Mrs. Sophia Conrad according to his will. However,
Sophia Conrad’s death certificate stated her father was James Hegney so he may
have adopted her. Hegney’s two daughters were Mrs. Maida Quinlin, and Mrs.
Gladys Peterson.
Eudora “Dora” Tyner Lamplough
Jim Hegney’s stepdaughter Eudora M. Tyner [1877–1951]
married while living at the Albany Hotel in 1897.
“Mr. Thomas L Lamplough and Miss Dora Hegney were married
last evening [20 September 1897]. The wedding occurred at the Albany hotel and
a large number of the friends of the bride and groom were present. Judge
Norrell read the marriage service and Mr. A.G [Andrew J.] Cronin acted as
best man while Miss Francis Hegney, sister of the bride was the bride’s maid.
The bride is a daughter of Mr. James Hegney, proprietor of the Albany. After
the wedding, a reception was held, and a delicious supper served. Mr. And Mrs.
Lamplough expect to make their home in this city.”
The couple had four children however only one, a daughter
survived to maturity. In 1901 the Intermountain Catholic printed a death
announcement for Dora Lamplough’s first born. “The news of the death of the
lovely little daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. L Lamplugh brought sorrow to the
hearts of all who knew the winsome, beautiful child. She died at Los Angeles
last Tuesday [July 28] where she was taken to benefit her heath.”
“Several weeks ago, the child contracted diphtheria and
never regained her former strength. All that medical skill could do was
unavailing and Little Lucille went to the angel land, leaving desolate her
loving parents and grandparents Mr. And Mrs. James Hegney. There is no sorrow
for the dear pretty Lucille, who has chosen the better part, but to the
sorrowing parents all love and sympathy is extended . Words are powerless to
comfort them. May God in His infinitely tender way, help them to bear their
grief. Their child is safe forever, transplanted in spotless innocence to God’s
Own Garden. The memory of her lovely little face and winsome baby ways will
ever linger in the hearts of all who knew her.”
Thomas and Dora Lamplough’s children were Lucille Lamplough
[1898-1903] Thomas Lamplough [1908-1908] Ramona Lamplough 1909-1910] and Margaret
Mary Field [1913-1968]
Dora Lamplough [1878-1951] is buried in Mount Calvary
Catholic Cemetery in salt Lake City.
Frances Tyner Charlton
The 1899 city directory listed Jim Hegney’s 20-year-old
stepdaughter Frances Hegney as “acting secretary for the Hercules Mining
Company’ while residing at 595 West Second South. Her sister 17-year-old sister
Sophia Hegney was simply listed as boarding at the Albany hotel.
Frances Hegney married the August after her sister Sophia.
“Mary Frances Tyner” married Thomas Charlton of Centerville, Utah in August
1901 over the objections of her stepfather.
“Miss Frances Tyner Hegney and Thomas W. Charlton were
married in the city and county building yesterday [August 19] by Elder Emery.
The groom is a brakeman employed on the Rio Grande Western and the bride is a
daughter of James Hegney, proprietor of the Albany hotel. The father of the
bride is said to have been bitterly opposed to the wedding , but after the
ceremony , it is aid , he became reconciled.”
Thomas W. Charlton was for 26 years a passenger conductor
for the Union Pacific Railroad and was a member of the Railway Conductors and a Spanish-American War Veteran. He was a
32nd degree Mason and “past potentate of El Kalah temple, Ancient
Arabic order, Nobles of the Mystic shine.”
Thomas W Charlton [1869-1929] and Frances Hegney Charlton
had three children Earl M. Charlton [1903-1957], Lucretia Elizabeth Charlton
Gough [1907-1982] and Frances “Frankie” Charlton Cleverley [1916-2012].
Mary Frances Hegney Charlton [1879-1962] is buried in the Masonic
plots of Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City next to her husband.
Sophia Tyner Hegney Conrad
In May 1901 Sophia Hegney married Winfield Franklin Conrad.
“Sophia Hegney and W. F. Conrad, a young Salt Lake Couple, left last
evening [May 15] for Buffalo, with the intention of stopping off at Provo
and undergoing the process of matrimony. The bride is the daughter of James
Hegney, proprietor of the Albany hotel, while the groom has been employed as
bartender at the hotel bar. It was rumored that the young couple had eloped,
but Mr. Hegney said last night that he had known of their intentions to leave for
several days past and get married at the home of friends in Provo.”
The couple were married May 16 by a Justice of the Peace in
Provo. Winfield Conrad [1878-1957] was a native of Pennsylvania who at
the age of 19 enlisted in Company A of the 5th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment
in the Spanish American War in 1898. He was in Utah by 1900 working as a
bartender when he testified at a murder trial. Various accounts stated he was a
bartender at the Headquarters Saloon, the Casino Saloon, and the Reilley Brothers
saloon. The 1901 city directory listed Conrad as a bartender for James Hegney
and boarding at the Albany Hotel.
Winfield and Sophia Conrad were the parents of James
Franklin Conrad and
Sophia Hegney and Winfield Franklin Conrad had two sons,
James Franklin [1902-1989] and Charles H Conrad [1909-1910] who died of
Bronchitis called the “croup” 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.
Sophia Conrad [1882-1942] is buried in Mount Calvary
Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City
James Edward Hegney
The eldest son, James E. Hegney died on 2 May 1910 of acute
Peritonitis at the age of 23 while he was a student at the University of Utah. He
was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Salt Lake.
“James E. Hegney Dead- Well Known Salt Lake Dies from
Peritonitis- Funeral Wednesday. After an illness of scarcely more than 26
hours, James Edward Hegney, 23, years old, son of the late Colonel J.E. Hegney,
died at 10 o’clock yesterday morning at
the home of his mother, Mrs. Eliza Hegney, 32 South Fourth street. The cause of
death was peritonitis, developing from a long siege of stomach trouble, which
though serious, had never forced him to spend more than day or
two in a sick bed. The stomach complaint had weakened his heart, and death came unexpectedly
yesterday morning.
James Edward Hegney was born in Salt Lake and had been
educated in the public schools of this city. Up to the time of his death he had
been in charge of his mother’s business affairs. He is survived by five sisters
and a brother all living in Salt Lake. The funeral will be held at 10 o’clock
Wednesday morning from St. Mary’s Catholic cathedral. Interment will be Calvary
cemetery.”
Charles Francis Hegney
James Hegney’s surviving son, Charles Francis Hegney, was married,
but separated, having never divorced as
they were a Catholics family. He and his wife never had children.
Charles Hegney and Katie Fellows were married 16 March 1913
in Farmington, Utah. However, an article from 4 May 1913 stated that his young
wife tried to commit suicide. “Mrs. Charles Hegney wife of Charles Hegney, son
of the late James Hegney, at one time proprietor of the Albany Hotel, attempted
suicide in room 423 of the Shelton hotel shortly before 2 o’clock this morning
by drinking a quantity of denatured alcohol. Apparently despondent, Mrs. Hegney drank the poison in the presence of her husband.” She was treated by the police doctor and
recovered.
Charles Hegney was in the news again in 1915 for being an
car accident. He hit a tree at Third East and Broadway [Third South]. In the
car with him was his brother-in-law W. Frank Conrad and a man named Alonzo
Hutchinson. Hegney swerved to avoid hitting a car that was making a left in front
of him. He and his passengers were all injured when they were hurled from the
car.
Hegney had “a fracture of the instep of the right
foot, a broken rib, and lacerations
about the face and hands. Conrad relieved deep gashes about the chest and a
laceration along the forehead extending into the scalp. It is thought that
Hutchinson’s left leg is fractured near the knee. Two of his ribs were
fractured.”
After his brother died Charles Hegney became the manager of
his mother’s businesses. He placed an ad, in 1923, listing the old Albany Hotel
that was now being used as a warehouse. “Brick warehouses on D & R G Tracks
close in’ paved street. Charles Hegney.” Again in 1924 he listed “Storerooms-
575 and 706 W 2nd South Apply
Charles Hegney.
Charles Hegney continued to manage the family’s property on
Second South after his mother died in 1925. In 1926 he filed a suit against a Greek man
named Odis Pappaspirides to recover $459,
he “alleged owing for rent.”
During Prohibition in 1929, Charles Hegney was arrested and charged with the “possession
and transportation of liquor” after federal agents found a half gallon of
liquor in his automobile. Charges were dismissed initially when government
witnesses failed to appear in court. However, the charges were refiled as he
plead guilty in December 1929 for transporting liquor. Hegney was sentenced to 90 days in jail and his
automobile was also ordered confiscated.
In February 1930, his wife Katie Hegney was reported to
have gone to Logan to visit “her husband who is serving a term in the local
jail having been convicted of a liquor charge in the federal court. Cache
county jail is housing two federal prisoners
at the present time. Both are for liquor violations.”
Charles must have been released by April 1930 when he and
his wife were enumerated in the 1930 census as living at a home at 152 Hampton
Avenue. He gave his occupation as manager of real estate.
Four years later in 1934
“Twenty-three cases of bonded whiskey and 35 gallons of moonshine were
confiscated in a raid at 152 Hampton
Avenue. Charles Hegney 45, who resides at the address was arrested on a charge
of possession of liquor and his wife Kate Hegney , 40, booked on a drunken
charge.”
The 1940 Census enumerated Charles as living without Katie
and not listing an occupation. His WWII draft registration from 1942 listed him
as living at 169 East Second South which is the address of the Stratford Hotel.
He stated that he worked for self managing real estate and he gave his sister
Gladys Peterson and not Kate Hegney as a contact person who would always know
where he was.
Charles Hegney’s wife Katie Fellows Hegney died in 1947 at the age of 55. At the time of her death, she
resided at 270 West Second South. She died according to her death certificate
of “suffocation due to aspiration of vomitus.” While her obituary said she died
of natural causes. . She was buried in
the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Charles was
the informant on his wife’s death certificate and said he lived in the Stratford
Hotel.
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.
The 1950 census showed that Hegney was still residing at
the Stratford Hotel. However, in January,
she checked himself into a room at the Congress Hotel on Second South and State
Street. There tragically Charles Hegney
committed suicide in 1951 by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun. He
was buried in the Mount Calvary Cemetery.
Maida “Mary” Quinlin
Maida Hegney, also called “Mary,” was married three times
but only had children by her first husband Thomas Russell Sprunt. She had two
children by him named James Hegney Sprunt and Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Sprunt.
Maida and Thomas Russell Sprunt were divorced by 1930, then
she 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.
Gladys Peterson
The youngest daughter of James Hegney, Gladys Hegney [1894-1961]
was married three times. She married Kenneth
Medcraft [1889-1940] a newspaper man and insurance man from San Francisco in November
1913 in Catholic Bishop Laurence Scanlan’s residence in St. Mary’s Cathedral. They were
divorced or annulled by August 1914. The 1916 city directory listed her as
“Gladys Hegney” residing with her mother and brother Charles.
Gladys made the news in 1916 while she, her sister Maida,
and her mother were visiting Venice, California to go deep sea fishing. Evidently,
she caught the largest albacore tuna up to that time breaking a record.
Later newspapers reported that she had accepted a marriage
proposal from Chester Doyle a prominent attorney and Japanese Interpreter who lived in Hawaii. She sent the proposal by
wireless while she was aboard a ocean liner. However, she actually married
another man in May 1916.
“After accepting a proposal of marriage from Chester Doyle,
a wealthy Honolulu attorney, Gladys was
married secretly 17 May 1916 in Los Angeles to Harry E Scott of Calgary,
Canada.”
“ Miss Hegney met Scott several months ago in March when
they were guests of the Venice Hotel in Cal. Her mother mildly disapproving of the
marriage returned to Salt Lake. Meanwhile
Gladys received a proposal of marriage from Doyle in Honolulu and accepted.” Mrs. Hegney said her “daughter had accepted
the wireless proposal only in the spirit in which she believed it was sent.”
Although Gladys believed Doyle wasn’t serious, a marriage date was set for June
in Honolulu.
Gladys and Harry E Scott made their home in Calgary, but it
has not been determined what became of this marriage. An article in a Millard
County newspaper from October 1926 featured “Entertains For Sisters- Mrs. T.R
Sprunt entertained at a well-appointed luncheon Friday afternoon in honor of her sisters Mrs. Gladys Scott and
Mrs. Charlton, both of Salt Lake.”
February 1930 stated “Mrs. Gladys Scott is guest of her
sister Mrs. T. R Sprunt.” as “Gladys
Scott” married in 1931 Oscar Peterson [1889-1964] who was employed by the Utah
State Road Commission as a bridge builder.
Gladys he also had no children. She died in April 1961 age
of 66 at the Holy Cross Hospital and was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery. She
died of the same condition that her brother James had died from.
Heirs
The only surviving grandchildren of James Hegney, who
became his heirs, were James Franklin Conrad, Mary “Betty” Elizabeth Sprunt,
and James Hegney Sprunt. Betty Sprunt married James Shulsen who operated a bar
called the Three Aces at the location of her grandfather’s old saloon for
nearly 30 years.
Chapter Four
The Italian Immigration
The Italian Immigrants
who came in the late nineteenth century resided mainly on the west side of the
Denver & 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.
Utah did not attract
Italians in large numbers, however. The first noticeable number of foreign-born
Italians in Utah appeared in 1870 and totaled only seventy-four in the
territory. 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.
Anglo Americans were suspicious
of Italians as they were stereotyped as either labor union organizers,
revolutionists, or anarchists. In Salt Lake City’s press coverage from this
period, it also “left readers with a more intensified, stereotyped image
of the Italian immigrant as a bloodthirsty, nonwhite, stiletto-in-hand
villain.”
An article from May 1883
revealed that “foreign laborers”, other than the Chinese, were being employed
by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway company. “On Sunday afternoon a row
occurred at the Denver & 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 the 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 for the hearing.”
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 were at work broadening the Rio
Grande gauge. The row occurred between Dagoes and Italians, one of the formers
drawing a gin and shooting two Italians one of whom died almost instantly. An
attempt was made to capture the murderer, but the Dagoes rallied around and
prevented the onslaught. The wounded man was brought to the city last night and
deputies started the scene.”
The Italian Colony of City Block 46
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.
The lack of a mining
town atmosphere differentiated Salt Lake City from other Italian localities, as
Italian immigrants living in the city were employed mostly by the Union Pacific
and the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroads.
By 1900 of the 170
Italians who resided in Salt Lake County, 102 of them lived in Salt Lake City
mainly on the west side in Rio Grande District which was the center of the
Italian settlement. The Denver & Rio Grande District of Salt Lake City
provided cheap residential and boarding houses.
“During this period, a
Little Italy neighborhood popped up on the west side of Salt Lake City, near
the Rio Grande Station.” Italian entrepreneurs owned saloons, tailor shops,
barber shops, shoe making shops and grocery stores sold Italian foods. It was
written that while numerous Italian immigrants “had been apprenticed in various
trades in the old country, 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.”
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 winemaking 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.”
Italians and Anarchy
As with 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
decried having to associate immigrants, stating ‘”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 the main organizers of unions and
striking against 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 Anarchists 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 says 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 would up his address with an anarchist discourse, in the
midst of which he was halted by the protest of Mr. Bonetti. On this occasion
there was almost a riot, but the speaker was forced to quit at the point of a revolver.”
“Several socialists 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
assassinate the president.”
The fear of the Italians’
radical political views may have actually been the catalyst for the pervasive
Greek migration to West Second South in the early Twentieth Century brought in
by mining and railroad industrialists.
The Italians in Salt
Lake City however continued to observe their heritage, “took part in
celebrations and parades that promoted good will between the Italian and
non-Italian communities.”
The Benites Saloon
One of the first
mentions 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’ 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.”
“Mad” Mother Martell
“Mother Martell” was one of the most a “colorful
character” who lived in the Rio Grande Western Depot area. She was identified
as being an Italian when in fact she was Irish but married to an Italian within
the Rio Grande Italian community.
She was written about
extensively in various newspapers in the 1890’s and early 1900s regarding her
high jinks 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 notorious
in her neighborhood on Fifth West [Sixth] between Third South and Fourth
[Fifth] South. The area in the 1890’s was then considered Salt Lake City’s
“Italian Colony.” Although her “consort” Gennaro “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 a 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, was 1875, which was
not accurate by other accounts.
“James Martell '' was a
Neapolitan Italian, whose actual name was Gennaro Martello. In a marriage
record to his third wife, Martello stated that his birth date was 8 December 1856,
and he was the son of “Comello Martelli'' and “A. Paccarsoca.” He immigrated to
New York City in 1890 at the age of 34 traveling in steerage on the ship
Neustria. Martello gave his occupation as “agriculture worker.”
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 between “James Martello”, age 40 and “Annie McGuirk”,
age 29. This is peculiar as Annie McGuirk was Maggie McGordon’s sister.
This raises many
questions about the “marital” relationship between Gennaro Martello and the two
sisters Maggie and Annie McGordon. An
incident in 1897 listed Maggie as Mrs. M. Martello and “Genuaro Martello” as
her husband. Another incident as well, named Maggie as the spouse of “Jennaro
Martello” and “Mrs. McGuirk” as her sister wife of a Michael McGuirk
[1868-1913] a Park City miner. 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 [Sixth]
West in the Second Precinct and Second Ward of Salt Lake City. The 1898 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map listed this one-story wooden house as a “shanty at the
address of 371 South. Behind this home at 571 ½ South was a series of four
small one story wooden shanties.
Maggie Martell was
enumerated as the head of household 100, directly across from the Rio Grande
Western rail yards. 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” aged 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 also did not list an occupation,
although Annie McGurck stated she was a “peddler.”
Enumerated next to these
women in a separate household was “James Martello.” He was listed as residing
in the rear of 371 South Fifth [Sixth] West, in the shanties separated by
Maggie Martell’s home by nine feet. His age was given as 50 years old born
January 1850 in Italy. He was actually 44 years old, so the enumerator probably
was just guessing. 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, that 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 who had immigrated in 1900, Joseph Paglingo age
45, a single man who 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.”
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 [Sixth] 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
[Sixth] West Street on Sunday last. Smith took an appeal from the sentence of
the court.”
The Near Lynching of
Maggie Martello
The City Directory for 1898 listed “Jennaro Martello” as
a peddler, residing at 371 South Fifth [Sixth] West in Salt Lake City. In June
1898, the Salt Lake Herald reported that “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 [Fifth] 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.”
The only other dwelling on the block facing Fifth West
was a wooden “shanty” that housed several Italian men. The 1900 federal
census listed eight Italian “day laborers” living in that residence.
On the Fourth of July 1898, the couple had such a
row that “Jennaro Martello” was arrested and charged with trying 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 [Fifth]
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 which wrote, “Had Joe
Martello pursued to the limit his satanic inclinations early yesterday morning,
and he would have murdered his spouse.”
The Tribune wrote that “Jennaro Martello, an Italian
peddler residing at No. 371 South Fifth [Sixth] West Street, is alleged to have
celebrated the glorious Fourth [Fifth] 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 [Sixth] 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 threw it about the woman’s neck and 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 interfere 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 of marital woes,” and had a rope around his wife’s neck and was dragging
her to streetcar 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 that
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 Pratt then visited the Martello household and
observed 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 the 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.”
The Tribune reporter interviewed a neighbor of the
Martellos 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.”
On 6 July 1898 Martello, who was “restrained from hanging
his spouse to a streetcar pole in Salt Lake City” appeared before Judge John B.
Timmony on the charge of battery. Maggie Martello, however, “made an earnest
plea on his behalf, and stated her dependence upon her husband for a
livelihood” and refused to testify against him. Whereupon Judge Timmony decided
to dismiss the case and Maggie Martello’s complaint against her husband for
battery was discharged.
Maggie Martello Goes to
Jail
The 1899 city directory for Salt Lake City listed
“Gennaro Martello, laborer” as residing at 373 South Fifth [Sixth] West. 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 [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 lived near 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
cunningly 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 to the
jail, 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 [Sixth] 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 [Sixth] 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
down the street, “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
was what 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 Charles A. Sperry and another man to
put her in 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 tablecloths, And it’s almost time for
dinner."
By the time Maggie
Martello appeared in Judge John B. Timmony’s police court for a hearing, she
had sobered up. “Saintly Mrs. Martell, whose conflict with the dazzling wine,
led to such painful circumstances last Saturday, 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 courtroom, 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” of
miscreants and saw Maggie Martello was in court again. “Mrs. Martinelli?’ There
was no answer. ‘Let the bail be forfeited.’
Raising Hell With Her
Sister Annie McGuirk
Maggie Martello went on another bender in November 1899
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 desk 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 [Philip H.]
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 ‘blankety-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 bodyguard 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 belong 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 [Charles A.] 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
[Frank G.] 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 Republican 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 [Philip H.]
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 whirlwind 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, " she said.”
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; “Maggie is not unknown to the police. When she starts
out and raises trouble, they do 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.”
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 City Directory for Salt Lake City listed him as
residing at the rear of 654 West Fourth [Fifth] South near the Rio Grande
Western rail yard. Neither he nor the Martellos are listed in the 1900 City 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 [Sixth] 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 [Sixth] West, 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
broomstick 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 the accuser failed to show
up.
In late July Maggie
Martello was 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 was 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. Martello began going by the name “James or Jim” and his surname was
sometimes spelled as “Martelli.”
The 1901 City Directory for Salt Lake City showed that
“James Martelli” had moved from 371 South and was residing at 359 South Fifth
[Sixth] 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 articles 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 Intermountain 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 run 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 people witnessed the accident and at once went to
the assistance of the unfortunate.” “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 City 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 the city for 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 City Directory for Salt Lake City under
the name “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.
Charles Bonetti [1849-1917]
Charles Bonetti, born in
Palermo, Italy, was “a well-known First
South Street businessman”, and became a self-appointed leader of the small
Italian Community. He was often employed by the Salt Lake Courts as an
interpreter for witnesses “unable to speak any language but Italian.”
Bonetti had married an
English woman by 1875 in New York and later made his way to Utah between 1880
and 1890. He was principally known as a barber with a shop at 56 West
First South Street but he was also the proprietor of the “Council Saloon” at 8
East First South.
Charles Bonetti became
preeminent in the Italian community as one of the founders of the “Societa Italiana
Christoforo Columbo di Mutuo Soccorso e Beneficenza” in May 1897. The English translation is roughly “Italian
Society Christopher Columbus of mutual aid and charity.”
Bonetti was its president and there were 42
signatures to the article of Incorporation. 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.”
In 1899 Bonetti was
accused of interfering in a criminal case involving a feud among some Italian
women in the Rio Grande district.
“Bonetti denies Charge.
He says He Didn’t Try to Bribe Mrs. Rosa. Charles Bonetti, president of the
Italian Association, is emphatic in his denial that he attempted to bribe Mrs.
Filmena Rosa in connection with the recent trouble among the 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 [President William] 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 Excitement at 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 citizenship. 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,” said “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 Charles Bonetti was
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 of 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.”
“Mr. 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 away from Utah, having moved to Pendleton, Oregon. He died in Portland,
Oregon at the age of 67 in 1917.
Raffaello and Catarina
Mauro
154 South and 156 Fourth
[Fifth] West
The 1897 city directory
listed an Italian immigrant named “Raffaello” Mauro [1860-1931] at this
address, employed as a Carpenter. Raffaello “Ralph” Mauro must have left his
former residence at 156 South Fourth West where he had lived three years,
when Silas Rall moved into that residence. The 1898 directed listed him as
“Raffale Mauro” still residing at this address along with his 16-year-old son
John Mauro.
Mauro stated that he
immigrated in 1887, followed by his wife Catarina and son John in 1889. He was
living in Salt Lake City in 1888 and specifically in Block 64 in the 1890’s.
Raffaello Mauro
[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
through 1896, Raffaello Mauro was listed at this address 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 1900 federal census
showed that Mauro had moved away to Scofield in Carbon County where he worked
as Railroad car repairer.
Catarina Mauro and
Filomena Rose’s Feud
The family may have
moved away from Salt Lake after June 1899 due to his wife Catarina
“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 Bonetti was brought
into court to be an interpreter as none of the women spoke English.
“Charles Bonetti who 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 not shoot at her.”
In the case of the state
vs. Ms. Catherina Mauro before Judge John B. Timmony, she was accused of
“brandishing a pistol and threatening to shoot Mrs. Mary Rosa of 564 West
Fourth [Fifth] 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.”
It was reported that
earlier Mrs. Mauro “had gone around the neighborhood in search of a pistol
procuring one at Tony Appelos.”
John Joseph of 356 West
Third South was an eyewitness as were Ernest Love and Lawrence Milk “two little
boys” who “saw from a distance and bore out Mrs. Rosa’s story. Ernest Love was
11-year-old nephew of Albert Neil Love. the nephew The two pistols were found
at the Mauro’ residence.
Canello and Mauro
claimed, “great provocation” when “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.”
Judge Timmony ruled in
favor of Catherine Mauro 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.” However, “Mrs. Cannello
remained in the sheriff custody.”
Catarina Mauro died 13
May 1901 in Salt Lake City of septicemia at the age 41. “Ralph Mauro”
then remarried in 1902 to Maggie McNellis. He later moved from Salt Lake City
in 1928 to San Francisco but had returned to Utah a month before he died at his
daughter’s home in the city.
Family
of Raffael Marine [1833-1909]
Raffael Marine was listed in the
1891 city directory as a laborer residing at 310 South Seventh [Eight] West.
Others mentioned at the same address was Lewis Marine a grocer, Michael Marine,
laborer, and Pascoe Marine also a laborer.
The
following year the city directory five men named Marine or Marino living in
Block 64. Eugene and Lewis Marine were listed as laborers rooming at 509 West
First South and Lewis Marine and Raphael Maine
residing at 596 West Second South, Another individual named James Marino
listed as a laborer also resided at 596 west. Eugene Henry Marine [1872-1939
was the son of Raffael Marine. He was born in Rome so mostly this is where the
Marine family emigrated from in Italy.
The
1893 city directory only listed Eugene Marine as a laborer boarding at 509
West along with Lewis Marine who was a
“grocer” at 596 West. A third person named Lottie Marine was listed as the
widow of Anton Marine. She resided nor boarded at 509 West.
However,
the 1900 federal census showed an Italian emigrant, Raphael [Raffael] Marine,
[1833-1909], his 53-year-old wife Lucia, and their two sons Patrick
Marine age 22 and Michael Marine aged 19 years old living at this Address.
Raphael Marine was also known as Ralph and the 1900 census listed him as 60
years old when he would have been closer to 67. They were all Italian
immigrants as were railroad laborers. Raphael and Lucia immigrated in 1888
however their sons did not emigrate until 1891.
Another
son Eugenio “Eugene” Henry Marine [1872-1939] was a shoemaker by trade and had
married in 1900. He had a shoe store at 402 West Second South.
The
two sons Pat and Mike were prone to epileptic seizures and in 1899, “a relative
of Patrick Marine, an unfortunate youth who resides on the West Side,
complained to Police Court Clerk Diehl yesterday morning [6 November] that the
youngsters of the Fifteenth Ward were constantly teasing young Marine until
that youth would become enraged and fall in a fit. He asked if there was no way
to stop such proceedings and said that if there was not the Marines would have
to leave the city.’
Patrick
Marine appeared in court 10 November 1899 charged with assault and
battery. “Patrick Marine who us a regular butt for mischievous boys’
pranks, pleaded not guilty before Judge John B. Timmony in the police court
this afternoon to the charge of assault and battery upon the person of one
Eddie 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-yesr old boy,
corroborated the testimony of the previous witness.”
“In
defense Pat Marine said the boys called him a ‘Frankfort steamer, a Hot Tamale’
and another name which would not look well in print. The court fixed the
penalty at $15 or fifteen days in jail.
The
Salt Lake Tribune reporting on the incident wrote, “Patrick Marine was the
first on the linoleum and the charge against him was assault and battery.
Patrick did not appear to be more than average in 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 Office Randolph looked
carefully around for a bucket in which to corral the humidity. Young Folsom
said that the defendant had given no cause for the assault and battery, and in
this he was corroborated by Arthur Eardley.”
“In
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 a
“hot tamale”. Third- the gang of which Folsom was alleged to be the leader, had
suggested , and there was a tone of sarcasm running through it, that he would
not look good to them if he were converted to a chicken sandwich. Fourth
[Fifth]-There had been doubts expressed as whether he would even make a good
meat pie. Fifth- It had been resolved by the kids assembled that he was merely
a hamburger steak, one served by an injection of formaldehyde. Then he got
angry, and trouble began. The trouble will be over fifteen days from the date.”
In
1902 Raphael Marine committed his two adult sons to the Provo Insane asylum
.They were still residing at this address in 1903, when their son Michael
Marine, who had been committed to the Provo Insane Asylum as an epileptic,
accuse the institution of abusing him.
In
1904 Eugene Marine reported to the police how his mother had been abused by
boys in the neighborhood. “Aged Woman Struck By Young Hoodlums- Mrs. Marine,
the aged mother of E.H. Marine, the well know West Second South business man,
has been subjected to several outages at the hands of 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 [Eighth] West and Second
South streets. Mr. Marine has complained to the police but says he can get no satisfaction from them. There is a great deal of
indignation expressed by the residents of the west end over the actions of the crowd
of rowdies.”
Patrick
Marine died in 1904 “In this city March 20, 1904, Patrick Marine, a native of
Rome aged 24 years. Funeral will be held from St. Patrick’s church tomorrow
morning at 10 o’clock . Internment in Calvary cemetery. Friends invited to
attend.”
“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. 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 the most promising scholars. He entered the high
school but discontinued upon the advice of his physician.’ The young man was 24
years old.”
“Bright
High School Boy Succumbs to a Complication of Troubles. A young Italian named
Patrick Marine of this city died yesterday at 10:30 at the Holy Cross Hospital.
His death was super induced by an operation for an abscess in the head brought
on with other ailments from a severe attack of typhoid fever some 13 years
ago.
The
deceased was one of the bright boys of the Franklin School, having graduated
from that institution with honors. He had entered high school where his
physical condition impaired his intellect and his parents had him placed un he
hospital in the hope of his recovery. He was 24 years of age.”
Patrick
Marine’s younger brother Michael Marine died in 1907 at the age of 23. He “met
with an accident about 9:05 Monday night [March 29] at the Third South Street
crossing of the Rio Grande Western railroad, from the effects of which he
died at St. mark’s hospital at 13:30 Tuesday morning, He was run over by
a string of freight cars, his right arm being severed at the shoulder and both
legs just below the knees. Marine suffered intense agony until death relieved
him of suffering.”
“Local
agent C. R. Aley, who in the absence of the division superintendent is acting
in his stead, was notified of the accident, and appeared on the scene. He said
that the suffering man should be cared for by the county and refused to have
anything to do with the case. He refused to summon medical assistance for the
sufferer who lay groaning and pleading on a stretcher on the floor.”
For
nearly an hour Marine lay in this condition when someone prevailed upon the
agent to summon Dr. Warren Benjamin the company physician and to notify
the authorities
“General
agent of the Rio Grande refused to take charge of the injured man and would not
have him sent to the hospital. Mr. Alley said that it was a county case, and
the railroad company did not have to render any assistance. This occasioned
another delay as it was not known where to take the man, County Physician
Calderwood was at last found and ordered the man taken to the hospital.
Several
times during the last twelve years Marine has become suddenly insane and has
only just recently returned from the state mental hospital at Provo. His mind
has been affected all his life and it was his habit to roam around the railroad
yards.’
He
lived with his aged mother and father at their home 253 South Fifth West. His
father is very sick at present, and the news of the young man’s accident was
withheld from him last night fearing the shock would kill him.”
“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 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.”
Raffael
Marine and his wife had move from 253 South Fifth [Sixth] West by 1906 to 832
Cannon Avenue. Evidently their grown son Michael remained at 253 South as that
was where he was residing when he died. Luci Marine made out a will in 1906 in
which she named her husband “Raffaele Marini”.
In
1908 an article commented how Raffaele and his wife were abused by children
attending Franklin Elementary. “Italian Says He Is Persecuted By Pupils Of
Franklin School”
“Since
the opening of 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 battle field as
who is at fault, if anybody, and what the exact fault is, if any. Marine
declares the boys throw rocks at him and annoys 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 little for the children.”
Friday
afternoon, E. H. Maurine, 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 because the school board had
filled in the grounds rising the school property several feet above that of
Marine’s.”
“Superintendant
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 school the boys , morning, recess,
noon hour ad in the evening after school spent the greater part of their time
in annoying his father. He alleges that his father is a object of their
continual abuse, and no act is 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 displease his father and are at all time heaping their
slander and abuse on him.”
“From
the board of education and the school principal comes another story.
Superintendant 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 is of 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 of the 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 continues between him and the children
continues.”
The juvenile court has received several
complaints regarding the children at the school , but as yet nothing has been
down. Guardello Brown said last evening he had ordered a man to investigate the
trouble. He has not, however, received any report about the matter.”
In
1909 Eugene H Marine was in police court after a quarrel with Syrian
immigrants. The Syrians claimed that Marine interrupted “their people while merrymaking,” and fired a
bullet which struck” one of the Syrians. The Syrians claimed that Marine, “a
shoe merchant at 759 West Second South” was the aggressor.
Marine
retorted d that that the man who was shot was shot by one of the Syrians who
was assaulting Marine. “ E.H. Marine has been a business man of Salt Lake for
eighteen years and has become a citizen. He alleges that he was assaulted by a mob of Syrians who broke down his fence,
smashed his widows, frightened his wife, and pummeled him into submission” Marine
showed the court his “bruised ribs and scarred arms.”
The
Salt Lake Herald article showed it’s distain of the Mediterranean immigrants
with the headline “Clans of the Garlic Breath Air Feud In the Police Court”.
The reporter disparaging added “The police court is a
jumble of garlic and strange tobacco, Syrian dialect and lawyers. Rows of heavy
mustaches decorate the benches and fierce whispered oaths mingle with
gestures.”
Raffael
Marine died in 1909 at the Holy Cross Hospital and was buried in Mount Calvary
Catholic Cemetery. His wife Lucia “Lucy” Marine
was listed in the 1910 Census as living at 802 Cannon Street as a 60-year-old
widow who owned her own home. She died in 1915 and the informant was her son E.
H. Henry who lived at 557 Second South.
Chapter Five
Churches for the Rio
Grande District
The Fifteenth Ward House
The Mormon Pioneers created the Fifteenth
Ward shortly arriving at the Salt Lake Valley. The ward was bounded both north
and south between South Temple and Third South. The Ward boundaries stretched
from Third West to the Jordan River and encompassed all of Blocks 63 and 64 as
well as the site of the Denver & Rio Grande Rail Yards. Blocks 81, 64 and 63 were for several decades the western
edge of the Fifteenth Ward at today’s Sixth West however as the population
increased the boundaries were set to the Jordan River.
The Fifteenth Ward’s
Meeting House was built in Lot Six of Block 65 on the northeast corner. It was
a large brick building and the Sanborn Fire Insurance showed that it was 26
feet tall up to the eaves.
The Fifteenth
Ward’s boundaries were for decades a “civic” political geographical
location as well as an ecclesiastical one for Great Salt Lake City.
Saint Patrick Catholic Parish
The Irish who came to Salt Lake’s west side to became
railway workers soon replaced the old Mormon polygamist families in the Rio
Grande District. As the Catholic population increased with the arrival of
Italians the need of a more convenient location for worship was apparent to Roman
Catholic Bishop Lawrence Scanlan.
To meet the needs of Irish Catholics Bishop Scanlan
purchased land in the northwest corner of City Block 44 in 1889. Three years later a brick cottage and a
framed building on the property at 417 South Fourth [Fifth] was converted for
worship and the Parish Church was named St. Patrick.
Saint Patrick Parish opened for services on 16 October
1892. The parish’s first pastor was Father Dennis Kiley who served the needs of
the Irish and Italian Catholics immigrants living on the west side of Salt Lake
City. Fr. Kiley had come to Utah from San Francisco with Bishop Scanlan as his
assistant in 1877.
In
1907 the land was sold to San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad.
Property for the new church was acquired on 400 south in 1914, and a
cornerstone was laid, but construction never took place due to the death of Fr.
William K. Ryan, then pastor, and Bishop Scanlan in 1915.
Bishop Joseph S. Glass selected the current site on 400 south and 1040 west for
the new Saint Patrick Church, the building of which was put into the hands of
Fr. Michael F. (later Msgr.) Sheehan, pastor from 1916 through 1926. The
church, with its mission-style architecture, was completed in November 1916,
but was not dedicated due to the onset of World War I.
To some Mormon and Protestant Salt Lakers, these new
Catholic arrivals were troublesome as they were seen as “ideologically unfit
for participation in American democracy.” The older, more established population
of Utah felt the idea of thousands of “inassimilable” foreigners” was
problematic to a city long dominated by a Mormon Theocracy.
The Westminster
Presbyterian Church & Its Pastors
130-132 South Fourth
[Fifth] West
Directly south of 124 South
Fourth [Fifth] West was the Westminster Presbyterian Church. The 1889 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map did not give the church an address, but the building was
described as the front of one-story section of the church being brick while the
large space in the rear was made of adobe. There was a wooden spire at the
front entrance of the Church.
In 1882 Morrill L Davis
sold his property bought from William and Sarah Thacker to the Presbytery of
Utah for $1,450 on which to build a church. The property description was from
the southeast corner of Lot Eight, west 10 rods [165 feet] and thence
north 6 rods [99 feet] back to the beginning. An article from 1890 stated “the
church has a fine brick chapel which cost $3500” which was dedicated in 1889.”
In the early 1880s, a
Mrs. Camp, a wealthy woman of Bement, Illinois, “donated the sum of
$12,000 for mission and educational work in Utah.”
An announcement in the
Deseret News from 1883 stated “Presbyterian School. It is reported that the
Presbyterians have purchased a piece of land in the Fifteenth Ward, south of
Henry Moore’s place and soon to commence the erection of a building to be
devoted to school purposes.”
From Mrs. Camp’s
donation “Camp Chapel,” a two-room adobe building, was built on Fourth [Fifth]
West Street between 1st and 2nd South Streets in Salt Lake City in 1884. A
missionary group called the “Christian Endeavor Society in Utah” was also
organized that year and worked from the Camp Chapel.
Rev. Henry A. Newell [1839-1910]
In 1884 a Presbyterian
clergyman named Henry A Newell came to Utah and transformed the Camp Chapel
mission into the Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Henry Newell was born in
Indiana in 1839 and in June 1864 he had married and a month later had joined
the 24th Michigan Infantry and fought in the Civil War. The 1870 federal census
listed him and his wife as living in Rock Island, Illinois where he was a
Presbyterian Minister.
The 1880 federal census
now listed Henry A. Newell as a 41-year-old “clergyman” living in Rochester,
Minnesota. He now with a five-year-old daughter. A few years later he was
a minister in Fargo, North Dakota on the Minnesota state boarder. In June 1884,
an article announced “Rev. H. A Newell of Fargo, will enter the mission field
of Utah under the auspices of the Congregational Church.”
Rev. Newell arrived in
Salt Lake City in July 1884 and began regular pastoral work began preaching at
the “Camp Chapel” mission located at Fourth [Fifth] West between First and
Second in September. He was working under the auspices of the Plymouth
Congregational Church until they disbanded a short time later.
Camp Chapel featured
several announcements of church services held for people of the Rio Grande District.
“Strangers in the city particularly invited. Seats all. Everybody welcome.”
Rev. Newell became well received as he “was a most interesting preacher
and efficient worker.”
Rev. Newell started a “Sabbath
school” at the Camp Chapel for children of the west side of Salt Lake. On
Christmas Eve 1884, a reporter wrote about his efforts; “another company of
children were inside happy last evening [December 24] at Camp Chapel, the
Presbyterian Mission on Fourth [Fifth] West between First and Second South
streets.”
The pastor in
charge, Rev. H.A Newell, aided by his wife and misses Sadie Reed and Emma
Groce, teachers in the day school, prepared a pleasant entertainment for the
children in the way of music, decorations, etc.”
“Among the exercises
were a beautiful poem, read by Miss Reed, in regard to the coming of Santa
Claus. A beautiful tree was filled with presents for all the Sunday School
scholars who had been regular in attendance. After the distribution of the
presents, a huge Santa Claus, seven feet high, entered the room, burdened with
an immense basket filled with beautiful boxes containing candy, raisins, nuts,
and popcorn, which he gave to every child in the room. The exercises were most
enjoyable throughout and appreciated by a crowded house.”
Camp Chapel. This
is mission work, located in the western part of the city and called Camp
Chapel in view of the liberality of Mrs. Camp of Bement, Illinois. The Sabbath
school connected with Camp Chapel has an average of at least sixty, and is
rapidly increasing, the attendance December.”
In January 1885, the
Camp Chapel mission was reorganized into a Presbyterian Church as the “new
organization takes the name of “Westminster Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake
with four elders elected ordained and installed. Under Rev. Newell’s
leadership, the Church was organized with 32 members.
In 1886, through the
efforts of Rev. Newell, a brick church was built in front of the adobe
mission. The “neat brick structure was dedicated in November 1886, and
shortly thereafter, Rev. Newell accepted a position in Salem, Oregon. He later
left Oregon for Los Angeles, California, serving several Presbyterian Churches
there. He died 2 June 1910 after retiring as pastor of the Hollywood Presbyterian
Church.
“Dr. Newell was 71 years
old and had been of the Presbyterian church forty-five years. His life was
spent in Christian work. Intellectually he was one of the strong men of the
church to which he so loyally gave his service.”
Rev. William R Campbell
After Rev. Henry A
Newell moved on, the following January 1887, Rev. William R Campbell who came
to Utah in 1886, was selected as the pastor. His time in Salt Lake City was
brief however several of his sermons were mentioned in local papers including
one called, “I Have sinned, and I am not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ.”
Rev. Campbell left after
a year and relocated to Cache Valley at Mendon, where he was the editor
of the Young People’s Friend. A Presbyterian chapel school had been
erected in Mendon, Utah in 1883.
Rev. William R.
Campbell as a Presbyterian pastor was vehemently against Mormon polygamy. In
the period from 1887 to 1890, “because of their plural wives, a number of the
men were sent to jail under the Edmunds-Tucker Act.”
After statehood
polygamist B.H. [Brigham Henry] Roberts in 1898, was elected as a Democrat to
the 56th Congress. However, petitions and protests, many from Utah’s Protestant
clergy and the National Anti-Polygamy League of New York soon flooded the U.S.
Congressmen.”
“The House of
Representatives appointed a special committee to investigate, and after lengthy
testimonies and political battles, the committee reported their recommendations
to the House, which in January 1900 denied Roberts a seat, based on his
practice of polygamist marriages, and declared the seat vacant.”
Among the chief
opponents of Roberts was Rev. William Campbell who left Mendon and went back to
New York and Washington D.C. to campaign in Eastern Presbyterian Churches
against the seating of B. H. Roberts in the House of Representatives.
Rev. Campbell took an
active part in the fight against seating Roberts and polygamy. At a large
gathering of Presbyterians in New York City, Rev. Campbell introduced Eugene
Young, a grandson of Brigham Young and Mrs. Fanny Stenhouse who condemned
polygamy and opposed the seating of B.H. Roberts “a three or four
ply polygamist, still living in polygamy” in Congress.
“If dragging polygamy
into the house of Representatives, Mr. Roberts is representing a defiant
sentiment of the whole Mormon people, then the people must not rest until
congress has cast him out as a warning to all covenant-breakers and all
polygamists.”
Even after B.H. Roberts
was denied his seat because of his practice of polygamy in 1900, Rev. Campbell still
continued his crusade against polygamy, that he stated was still being
solemnized in Utah despite the 1890 Manifesto that the Mormon Church claimed
ended the practice.
Rev. Campbell testified
before a House Committee about Utah Mormons appointed to postmaster positions
who were practicing plural marriage. However, by 1902, Campbell abandoned his
opposition against polygamy and accepted a position with an insurance firm in
New York City.
Rev. Franklin L Arnold [1825-1905]
In September 1888, Rev.
Campbell was succeed by sixty-three-year-old Rev. Franklin L Arnold
[1825-1905]. Rev. Arnold was a graduate of Oberlin college in Ohio and
was said to also have spoken as well as write German. He had “labored 13
years in Evanston, Wyoming,” before excepting the pastorate in Salt Lake
City.
In 1889, a petition was
presented to the Utah Presbytery seeking the organization of a Presbyterian
church to be named Westminster with its formal organization occurring on September
19 of that year.
The Westminster Church
prospered under Rev. Arnolds leadership as that he was “an interesting preacher
and one of the most efficient pastors that ever came into the city, always in
search of the needy and the sick, with cordial greetings for the strangers and
thereby makes the church noted for its home-like atmosphere,” and was known “as
an active working church along all Christian and benevolent lines.
The Church also had a
“flourishing Sabbath School” of over 150 neighborhood children and “a good
Young People’s Society.
The Fourth [Fifth] West
Westminster Presbyterian Church, was mentioned in 1890 as having 35 members and
owned “a valuable property of six by 10 rods It also had a “good
school-building and an efficient school of two grades with an enrollment of
about 100.”
The church was mentioned
in as being located at Fourth [Fifth] West between First and Second South and
mentioned the groups meeting there. “Rev. Franklin L Arnold Pastor, Camp
Mission School, Christian Endeavor Society, Bethany Band Children’s Missionary
Society. Ladies Aid Society.”
In 1891 the
Women’s Christian Temperance Union began holding meetings Westminster Church
which was “now lighted by electricity a great improvement of the kerosene
lamp system. The following year Rev. Arnold proposed to the Salt Lake
School Board to lease their two school rooms in the Westminster church,
thoroughly equipped for eighty students, at a rental of $40 per month.
The proposal was approved.
In 1894 girls of the “Westminster
School” at the Presbyterian Church “of Fourth [Fifth] West” held a church
benefit “for the benefit of a young colored girl in the South who is receiving
her education through the efforts of the class.”
In 1897 the city
directory finally listed an address of the Westminster Church at 130 South
Fourth [Fifth] West. The following year, Rev. Arnold retired with the
church having grown to 125 members. When Rev. Arnold died in 1905, he was
buried in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery, the only one of the seven men who served as
pastorate of the church. Between 1898 and 1908 there came a succession of
four young pastors between the ages of 24 and 31 year.
Rev. George Edward
Bailey [1867-1926]
Rev .George Bailey was
born in England and graduated from Firth University in 1889.He and his
wife emigrated to the United States in 1897 and settled in Broken Bow
Nebraska.
“A unanimous call
has been extended to Rev. George Bailey of Broken Bow, Nebraska, by the
Westminster Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City. If the call is accepted, as
it is understood it will be, the Westminster people are to be
congratulated upon their success.
In Kearney
Presbytery, where Mr. Bailey was ordained six years ago, no man holds more
unbounded confidence and respect.
The Broken Bow church
will, it is hoped , soon find a man to take up the work laid down by the
retiring pastor. The new field will be occupied by the pastor about October 1.”
The Rev. George Baily
who was from Broken Bow, Nebraska, served as pastor until 1902 when he
“resigned his pastorate in order to accept the position of president of Sheldon
Jackson College which later became Westminster College. George Bailey was the
second president but lived in Washington D.C. to fundraise for the new college.
In 1905 he resigned from Westminster College to “become pastor of one of the
leading Presbyterian Churches of Washington D.C.
Rev. George Bailey left
Washington D.C and moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, then to Cleveland Ohio by 1920
where he was rector of St. Philips. The Apostle Episcopal church. he and his
wife were killed in car and train accident in 1926 at the “White House grade
crossing, known as the worst death trap in the state.”
The persons killed
Saturday [June 5] were the Rev. George E. Bailey, Mrs. Bailey, Leslie Sheard ad
Mrs. Gertrude Sheard his sister. The Reverend Bailey was driving the car in
which the victims were riding.
Witnesses differ as to
whether a watchman was flashing danger signals at the crossing at the time of
the accident. Rev. George and his wife Matilda were buried in the Riverside
Cemetery in Cleveland Ohio,
“”Rev. George Edward
Bailey formerly pastor of the Central Presbyterian church in eerie, and his
wife, were instantly killed late Saturday, [June 5] night when the automobile in
which they were riding was struck by a Pennsylvania train about four miles out
of Cleveland, Ohio. The pastor and his wife were returning from an outing of
young people of St. Phillips Episcopal church of Cleveland of which he
had been pastor for several year.”
Rev. John Theophilus
Richelsen [1878-1958]
Twenty-Four-year-old
Rev. John Theophilus Richelsen of
Soda Springs, Idaho, “a young man and a recent graduate of Princeton Divinity
School,” was hired but left in 1904. The summer before leaving he gave
several public sermons promoting “Socialism” as a means to cure the ills of
capitalism. His addressed were well received and published in their entirety in
local papers. While not promoting the Socialist Party he clearly believed
that Socialism was a Christian value.
His popularity was
attested by the number who turned out for his farewell. “Westminster Church was
crowded to overflowing last night [21 August 1904] with an appreciative
audience, the occasion being the farewell services of the Rev. John Richelsen
who leaves this evening for his new pastorate in West Virginia.
Rev. McLain W. Davis [1873-1967]
Thirty-one-year-old Rev.
McLain W Davis was pastor from 1904 until 1906 when he left for Green River,
Utah.
Rev. Charles Curtis
McIntire
Twenty-Eight-year-old
Charles Curtis McIntire then became pastor. He left Salt Lake by 1913 and moved
Illinois and later by 1920 to Venita, Oklahoma. He and his wife divorced, and
he moved to Chicago, Illinois.
The demise of the church
building was announced in an article, “Old Church Edifice Sold For Warehouse.
Church of Westminster Presbyterian To Be Devoted to Commercial Use,
The old Westminster
Presbyterian church on Fourth [Fifth] West Street in which the congregation is
soon to see the last of devout Sunday Services, and to be given over , in its
old age, to he uses of busy commerce. The old building was sold Saturday [4
October 1908] to the Redman Van and Storage company, which will take possession
of it November 1, and next Friday [October 30] the pastor, Charles Curtis
McIntyre, will preach his farewell sermon in the old church, and thereafter,
till the new church is completed the congregation will worship in Odd
Fellow’s Hall.
The church has been in
use many years and its congregation has outgrown it, and recently decided to
erect a new building, which called for the requirements of the purchasing
company, who will use it for a warehouse, after making the necessary
alterations, the trade was affected, and the transaction completed on the
payment of the price agreed upon, $9000.
Mr. McIntyre and many
members of the congregation are making preparations this week for the farewell
services Friday evening, which will mark the close of the usefulness of the
building as a place of worship.”
An article from January
1909 related how the church property had been sold to the Redman Van and
Storage Company and had left its location in City Block 64 where it had been
for a quarter of a century. Unstated however that the move probably was prompted
by the city’s proposal to build a red-light district in the center of
block 64 in order to remove brothels and prostitutes from the commercial
districts of downtown.
“The Westminster
Presbyterian church just completed one of the most eventful and prosperous
years in its history. The past six-year numerous attempts have been made to
dispose of the old location on Fourth [Fifth] West between First and Second
South Streets but none were successful until last October when the property was
sold to a local van and storage company.”
“The location for the
new church on the corner of Fifth South and First Street has been cleared of
all financial encumbrances and the ground will be broken for a new building
early next spring at cost of $22,000 and will be ,modernly equipped
Auditorium rooms for various auxiliary organizations and a gymnasium in the
basement for the Boy’s Club. Over $500 was raised in the past year. Temporary
services held in the Order of Odd Fellows Hall 65 Market Street. The new church building on Fifth South, and
Second West was dedicated in September 1910, and the church continued its work
there until 1946.
The old Westminster
Church building on Fourth [Fifth] West was eventually torn down when a new
edifice was built on the corner of First West and Fifth South in 1909. Today
130 South Fourth [Fifth] Street is called Fifth West Street and the Gateway 505
Apartments are situated here.
Chapter Six
The Saloons and Other Businesses of Block 63 and
64
William T Sampson’s Salt
Lake Meat Company
275-279 South Fifth
[Sixth] West
In 1890 Edmund
Butterworth leased the southwest corner of Lot Two consisting of approximately
six rods by six rods nearly 1000 square feet to August Roland for $18,300 with
a monthly rent of $50. August Roland [1858-1929] was a business partner with
William Thomas Sampson [1848-1937] until 1892. An article on businesses being
constructed in October 1890 listed “Roland and Sampson Cold Storage for $25,000”.
For nearly 10 years the
southwest corner of Block 63 at the corner of Third South and Fifth [Sixth]
West contained the Salt Lake Meat Market and slaughterhouse. An advertisement
for the Salt Lake Meat Company was placed in the 1890 City Directory
which stated.
“A. Roland, W.T.
Sampson, Salt Lake Meat Co, Wholesale Dealers In Dressed Beef, Pork, Mutton and
Veal, Hams, Bacon and Lard. Fine Sausage a Specialty- Cor. Third South and
Fifth [Sixth] West Salt Lake City Telephone 451 P.P. Box 756” .
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map listed a whole complex of buildings for the Salt Lake Meat
Company with the addresses of 273 South, 271 South, 267 South and 265
South. All these addresses were located in the same building contained a “frame
front.” The building was shown as two stories and provided boarding and lodging
on the second floor. The northern half of the first floor contained two
large rooms, one which was a wagon house, and the other contained hides and the
company’s office. Next to the office was a stairwell to the second floor.
The south portion of the
building stored meats and refrigerators as well as another small office. Behind
this building were outside stairs to the second floor and an open courtyard. A
long 2 story brick row of workspaces was listed as 265 ½ West and was mentioned
as a “sausage facility” on the first floor and “lard rendering” on the second.
That building contained lard kettles and a smoke house with a
Boiler.
The duplex at 566 West 300
South was only 13 feet from this building and the smell had to have been very
noxious.
August Roland
[1858-1929]
August Roland was a
German native who immigrated to the United States in 1871. In 1881 he had a
deal to furnish the Denver & Rio Grande and Colorado Midland Railroads with
beef during the completion of their contracts for construction of railway lines
which kept him busy until 1889.
When Roland came to Salt
Lake City, he secured as a partner William T Sampson, and they started the
wholesale meat business located in Block 63 under the firm name of “Roland and
Sampson’s Salt Lake Meat Company”.
This enterprise lasted
two years. “Notice of Dissolution. The co partnership composed of August
Roland and William T. Sampson heretofore existing and doing business at Salt
Lake City, Utah , under the name and style of the Salt Lake Meat Company, is
this day dissolved by mutual consent. William T Sampson having purchased the
interest of August Roland in said business and will continue business at the
old stand and will collect all bills and pay all debts. Al Roland, W.T. Sampson
Salt Lake City, May 23, 1892.”
August Roland deeded to
William T Sampson a half interest in his lease in Lot Two and William Sampson
and his wife Jane took out a mortgage of $10,000 to pay as James Bacon
trustee for Roland to secure four notes at $2500 each.
In the meantime, August
Roland who held about 32,000 head of sheep in the Utah Range near Grand
Junction, lost a fortune when the tariff on wool was removed during President
Cleveland’s administration. He sustained a loss of $2 per head of sheep.
Roland returned to Salt
Lake City and started the Murray Meat and Livestock Company. It was said “It is
doubtful if there is a man in the intermountain country with more practical
knowledge in the meat and livestock business than Mr. Roland.”
By 1893 Roland was
boarding at 261 South Main Street in Salt Lake and never had dealings with
Block 63 afterwards. He married in the late 1890’s and raised a family in
Murray Utah.
William Thomas Sampson
[1849-1937]
Roland’s partner William
Thomas Sampson immigrated to the United States in 1867 from England and settled
first in Colorado. In 1875 Sampson declared his intentions of becoming a United
States citizen while living in the community of Silver Plume, Clear Creek
County, Colorado a “small mining camp of a few hundred inhabitants”,
where he worked in a butcher shop. He was residing in Silver Plume when
the 1880 federal census was taken.
The business district of
Silver Plume burned down in November 1884 and “before any organized effort
could be made the flames were beyond control and in an incredibly short time,
forty of the principal buildings comprising the entire business portion of the
town were in ruins. W.T. Sampson was among the businessmen whose places were
destroyed.”
Sometime after the fire
the Sampson family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. William Sampson was not
listed in the 1888 Salt Lake City directory but in 1890 he was listed as
residing at 504 West First South within the boundaries of the Fifteenth Ward.
He was listed as a partner in the Salt Lake Meat company which was
located then at 317 South First East [State Street].
By 1891 the Salt
Lake Meat Company had relocated to the “northeast corner” of Fifth [Sixth] West
and Third South in Block 63. This was land leased from Edmund
Butterworth. This location near the Rio Grande Depot was convenient for
the delivery of livestock to the slaughterhouse. In 1891 a newspaper reported
that “the Salt Lake meat company received twenty-one cars of cattle over the
Rio Grande Western, twelve for Ephraim and nine from Mill Fork.”
When cattle came by way
of the Union Pacific railway to the slaughter yards, cattle was often herded
through the streets. The business section of Salt Lake newspapers reported
that in 1894 the Union Pacific Stock Yards “received twenty-two head of beef
steers from the north for the Salt Lake Meat company. One of these
steers however caused a rampage in the streets of Salt Lake City.
“A three-year-old cow,
fresh from the range, caused a reign of terror on State, South Temple and First
Streets. She broke away for a bunch of beef cattle the property of the Salt
Lake Meat Company. Several people narrowly escaped injury. Two little children
near Second South were knocked down. In the street near the ZCMI shoe factory,
she attack a man demolishing his bicycle.
“Chief Pratt and a
number of his officers captured the cow. The ropes were slipped over her head
with considerable difficulty and not until the animal had made several attempts
to gore the horse ridden by Special Officer Talbot. The owners converted the
wild beast into beef during the afternoon.”
Andrew H Blomdell [1819-1900]
Andrew H Blomdell
brought a suit against William T Sampson for $5000 in 1897 for this
1894 incident. He claimed that Sampson owned a “wild and ferocious cow which,
being driven through the streets,” and it had “entered the premises of the
plaintiff and attacked and gored him, inflicting such injuries as to
permanently disable him.”
Sampson testified that
his company was “engaged in the butcher business in Salt Lake and on that date
in question received a carload of cattle shipped to them over the Union Pacific
Road, and that in driving them through the street one heifer ran away from the
herd and may have entered the premises of the plaintiff but had no certain
knowledge.”
The owners of the cow,
denied “having any personal knowledge of the disposition of the animal,
having never seen it before, but from inquires made afterwards it was learned
the animal was neither wild nor vicious and that in fact was a very Gentlemanly
cow.” The jury however returned a verdict of $200 for Blomdell.
In 1892, William T
Sampson bought out his partner August Roland “by mutual consent” and Sampson
became the sole proprietor of the Salt Lake Meat Company. Andrew J
Cronin and others nearby neighbors on Third South, in December 1893,
complained to city hall that the Salt Lake Meat “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 at this location for the rest of the decade. The smell of the
rendering of cattle in this area must have been insufferable.
Two cattle rustlers, who
stole five cows and nineteen steers from G.M. Pace in Summitt County, drove
them into the city in August 1896 and tried to sell them to the Salt Lake Meat
Company but “before the alleged thieves received the money for the same,
the cattle were identified” and the rustlers were arrested.
Death of Son Thomas Sampson
William Sampson
had moved his wife and two sons to a home located at 231 West Second South
where he resided at least until 1895. The 1896 city directory stated his family
resided then at 275 South Fifth [Sixth] West next to his company meat packing business
at 579 West.
The Sampson family
actually was residing on Fifth West [Sixth] West by 1895 when his 22-year-old
son, Thomas William Sampson, died of blood poisoning and his funeral was held
at his parent’s home.
Thomas Sampson was
mentioned in several newspaper articles as being at several dances held by the
Grand Army of the Republic committee and in 1893, he had even won first prize
as the “Best gentleman waltzer” at an “Odd Fellows sponsored excursion at Garfield
Beach” where “some 2,000 people” had attended.
In January 1895, Five
months before he died, Thomas Sampson was fined $5 for “driving too fast over
some railroad tracks” in a buggy, presumably.
Thomas Sampson’s funeral
service, “held over the remains” was at the residence of his parents, at the “corner
of Fifth [Sixth] West and Third South.” The pastor for St. Mark’s
Episcopal Church conducted the funeral.
“The floral tributes
were most profuse, while those who followed the remains to the grave, filled
the seats of over sixty conveyances that stretched over three Blocks. Decease
was most popular, and a large circle of friends and acquaintances united in
sympathy with the bereaved parents and relatives.”
Later an advertisement
was placed in the Salt Lake Tribune thanking people for cards of sympathy. “We
desire to extend our heartfelt thanks of kindness during the sickness and death
of our son Thomas W. Sampson and sincerely trust that they will not have to
soon pass through an affliction as we have. Mr. and Mrs. Wm T Sampson.”
Trouble With Albert
Malquist
The next account
of William Sampson was from June 1896 involving an eleven-year-old boy stealing
his “horse and buggy” which was worth $135.
Albert F Malquist was
the son of John Malquist who owned a blacksmith shop on the corner of
Commercial Street and Plum Alley in the business district of Salt Lake. The
Malquist family lived however at 253 South Fourth [Fifth] West, a Block east of
William Sampson.
The Malquist lad was
constantly in trouble and in 1897, a warrant for his arrest was issued on
a complaint from his own father the “complainant.” Albert Malquist, now
12 years old, was “charged with truancy and general
incorrigibility.”
Albert Malquist had been
arrested several times during this period and had put up “quite a fight”
against officers.” In police court, he complained that his reason from staying
away from home so much was that his father “ill-treats him.”
Utah had no juvenile
court system and youthful offenders were housed in the city jail along with
adults and each time Malquist was arrested for truancy he was taken to the jail
to await his court appearances. At one court hearing it was reported that young
Malquist was “addicted to the use of tobacco and kept the company of bad
companions.”
Eventually the boy was
sentenced by the court to be committed to the State’s Industrial School in
Ogden which must have frightened him as that Malquist pleaded not to be sent, that he was sorry for his behavior and would reform.
As that he seemed penitent to the judge, the reform school sentence was
suspended on the promise of his good behavior. However, Malquist failed to
reform his behavior and he was sent to the state reform school in Ogden until
he was 21years old.
Charles Sampson and
Elizabeth Rowland Affair
William T Sampson’s only
surviving son, nineteen-year-old Charles Edward Sampson was arrested on a
charge of fornication in August 1896 with Maggie Rowland, on a complaint of the
girl’s mother, Elizabeth Rowland the wife of Benjamin Rowland. The Rowland
Family had lived near the corner of Second South and Fourth [Fifth] for
over thirty years and were among the Mormon pioneer families of Block 63.
Maggie Rowland’s sister Maude was pregnant when she married Albert Near Love.
Mrs. Elizabeth Rowland
charged that Charles Sampson “committed fornication with her daughter Maggie
Rowland on September 1, 1895” and he was the father of Maggie Rowland’s
baby boy born in June 1896. Sampson was arrested but released on a bond of
$250.
Various newspapers
carried accounts of the arrest due to the fact that Charles Sampson had wanted
to marry Maggie Rowland but being underage, his father refused to give his
consent.
Newspapers reported,
“There was quite a disturbance in the Sampson and Rowland families when the
charge was made against the defendant at some time ago. Young Sampson was
anxious and willing to make atonement by marrying Miss Rowland, but Charles’
father would not consent, and was very bitter against the Rowlands. Charles was
underage and without the old man’s consent could not obtain a marriage license
and the consequence was he was sent to jail to await trial on the charge made
against him.”
“Are Anxious To Marry-
Had to Arrest the Bridegroom- Sampson’s Papa Objects- So the parents of the
Intended Bride, who is also a Mother, Swore out a Warrant for the Young Man’s
Arrest and will Bring the Affair to a Focus- The persistent refusal of a stern
papa to allow his nineteen–year-old son to follow the dictates of his own
heart, and marry a girl who he had wronged, resulted yesterday in the arrest of
Charles Sampson, on the charge of criminal intimacy with the girl.”
“The case is in many
respects a peculiar one. The girl in the case, Miss Maggie Rowland, is only 18
years old and of a very respectable family, and she and young Sampson have been
sweethearts for something over two years.”
In most papers “respectable” was a coded word for a Mormon family.
“It appears that they
anticipated their conjugal felicity to some extent, however, about two months
ago, Miss Rowland gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, which Sampson admits is
entitled to call him papa.”
“Shortly after the birth
of the child, Sampson desiring to do all in his power to right the wrong which
he had committed, accompanied Miss Rowland to the County Clerk’s office and
endeavored to secure a marriage license. Being only 19 years of age, though,
the clerk declined to issue the license without the written consent of the
prospective bridegroom’s father, and as the last-named individual, who is the
proprietor of the Salt Lake Meat Market, emphatically refused to give his
consent to the issue, the matter was declared off.”
“An attaché of the
County Attorney’s office, who was cognizant of young Sampson’s desire to marry
Miss Rowland, then interviewed the father with the view of having the
matter amicably adjusted, but Sampson was inexorable, and refused, as before,
to consent to the marriage. This of course left Miss Rowland’s family no other
alternative except the one taken yesterday, when a complaint was sworn to.”
“It is stated that the
elder Sampson has endeavored to settle the matter by an offer of money, but
that Miss Rowland’s family has refused to entertain the proposition.”
“When take before
Justice Wenger, Sampson gave bonds in the sum of $250 for his appearance and
the preliminary hearing was set for next Thursday.”
At one point the young
couple was thwarted from even going to Idaho where parental consent was not
necessary. Why William Sampson objected to the marriage so adamantly is unknown
and not detailed in the accounts. It may have been a religious matter as that
the Rowlands were Mormons and the Sampson’s were Episcopalians or simply
William Sampson disapprove of his son marrying into a family under financial
strains.
In a preliminary court
hearing, Elizabeth Rowland “among other things,” testified of Charles Sampson’s
proposal to marry the girl. Other people were called to offer testimony “but as
young Sampson admitted he alone was responsible for the girl’s condition there
was very little for the prosecution to gain by the testimony of others.”
Maggie Rowland “appeared in court with her offspring in her arms, a pretty
child, bearing a strong resemblance to the defendant.”
The county prosecutor
stated that the bond of $250 seemed too low and the Judge agreed raising it to
$500, perhaps to punish William Sampson, more than his son. “The $500 bail was
furnished by the obdurate father who prefers to fight the matter in the courts
rather than have his son amend his evil deed.”
In October 1896 Charles
Sampson was to be tried on “the Fornication Charge,” but the case was
“dismissed on motion of the county attorney at the request of the complaining
witness, Maggie Rowland,” who evidently did not want the father of her baby
sent to prison. “It now appears an understanding has been arrived at as
the case was dismissed at the earnest solicitation of Miss Rowland and her
mother.”
Margaret “Maggie”
Rowland [1877-1915] never married and lived with her mother at 44 North Fifth
[Sixth] West where she died of pneumonia. The baby boy was raised by the
Rowland Family and was named William T. Sampson perhaps to either prompt his
grandfather change his mind or to perhaps to spite him.
Leaving Block 63 and the Salt Lake Meat Company
William Sampson decided
to move his family away from Block 63. He had a builder’s permit issued to construct a
brick cottage at 922 East Second South for $1800 in December 1896. The Sampson
family moved from Fifth [Sixth] West in 1897, perhaps due to the
notoriety his son’s case brought to the neighborhood or simply because of the decline in the neighborhood.
In 1897 Sampson also
transferred the lease of the parcel of Lot Two out of his name to the Salt Lake
Meat Company. In July 1898, Edmund Butterworth sold to William Sampson the
property in Lot Two on which the Salt Lake Meat Company was located. Afterwards
the “Wholesale Butchers” business’ address was given as 275
South Fifth [ Sixth] West in the Salt Lake City directory, Sampson’ former
residence.
In the same year 1897,
the Salt Lake Tribune reported on the “consolidation of two of the big
dressed-beef firms in the city. W.T. Samson, who for several years has owned
and operated the Salt Lake Meat Company, and Stephens and Company , the
wholesale people on State Street are parties of the combination . The
consolidation will work as a corporation under the name the Salt Lake Meat
Company and shares of the company will be distributed among the owners in the
individual concerns according to their respecting holdings.”
“The “Salt Lake Meat
company” incorporated with a capital of $25,000 with 500 shares at $5
each. William T Sampson was President of the company which he announced, it
would “conduct a general butchering and commission business.”
In 1898 William Sampson
was listed as a director of the Atlas Meat Company and he may have sold his
interest in the Salt Lake Meat Company as that a man named Cornelius Hunt
was president of the concern in 1899. In 1899 the Salt Lake Meat Company took
out a mortgage for $4000 from the National Bank. By 1900 the Salt Lake
Meat Company had moved its office location to 26 West First South away from
Block 63 although Butterworth had renewed the lease agreement with the Salt
Lake Meat Company.
The Sampsons Move to
Denver
The 1900 City Directory
for Salt Lake City does not include either William T Sampson or his son Charles
E Sampson. The family had moved by this time to Denver, Colorado. The residence
at 922 East Second South had been sold to a Turner Family. In September 1900,
an assignment of his lease was recorded between William T Sampson and William
H. Bintz of the W.H. Bintz restaurant supply company.
The Sampson family
moved to in Denver, Colorado, probably in 1899 where William T Sampson
opened a grocery store at 3486 West Thirty-Second Street and resided at
3022 Meade Street in 1900. His son Charles E Sampson was also living with his
father and worked as a clerk in his store.
The 1900 federal
census listed Sampson and his family at the Meade Street address. Here he was enumerated
as a 50-year-old grocer and a native of England who immigrated in 1868. His
wife Jane Ralph Sampson was also of English descent, stating that the couple
had been married for 28 years [1872], however oddly she stated that she the
mother of only one son, Charles who was now 21, although she actually was the
mother of two sons. Living with the family was an adopted daughter named Mary
Ralph who was actually Jane Sampson’s niece. Their son Charles E
Sampson eventually married in 1910 but died eight years later.
Denver City directories
showed that William Sampson moved to 3035 Lowell Street where he is listed as a
“grocer” up until 1937. As that he was not listed in the 1938 directory it can
be safely assumed that he died in 1937 in Denver, Colorado. He outlived his
wife and two sons, and his only grandchild was that of the child of Maggie
Rowland.
Hannah Sharp Friel’s Denver House
241 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
In January 1883 Edmund
Butterworth leased to a man named Abijah Riley a parcel at this address for $20
a month. The following year Riley transferred the lease to a polygamist named
Edward Friel [1822-1905] for $1,650. The description of the parcel stated it
was from the northwest corner of Lot Three, east 6 rods [99 feet] south 4
rods [66 feet] back to the beginning. This property at 241 South Fifth [Sixth]
West consisted of two one story wooden houses.
Edward Friel later
transferred the lease to his estranged wife Hannah Sharp Friel [1823-1913] who
was divorcing him. Hannah Friel had been a schoolteacher at the Brigham Young
Academy teaching spelling to “primary” students in 1881. She filed for divorced
from her polygamist husband in April 1884. At the time of the suit for divorce
both Edward and Hannah Friel were residents of Springville, Utah and he
had deserted her for one of his other wives. Hannah Friel accused him of
“neglecting to provide for her,” having “intemperate habits” with alcohol and
having treated her with “habitual cruelty as well as that “he is a bigamist or
polygamist”.
The Third District Court
granted the divorce and ordered Edward Friel to pay Hannah Friel’s attorney fee
of $100, another $100 to her plus $30 a month and restrained him from selling
his property pending “the action.” The divorce was finalized in July and
in August, Edward Friel transferred his interest in the property at 241
West to Hannah Friel.
James Keenan & The
Denver House
Hannah Friel then rented
out two framed structures “immediately opposite the Denver & Rio Grande
passenger depot” to James Keenan who operated a café, a store, and lodgings in
them which he called the Denver House. Keenan was referred to in various
accounts as “James J Keenan” and “James F Keenan”.
An advertisement from
March 1885 mentioned the Denver House, stating, “Emigrants Attention! For
supplies of all kinds in eatables and groceries, and Choice Cigars and Tobacco-
First Class Meals 25 cents.”
Later in early May there
was a major row between Hannah Friel, Mattie Keenan, wife of James
Keenan, and a man named Edwin Huff. The newspapers did not record what the
fight was about, but Hannah Friel had charged Mattie Keenan with battery
and Edward Huff also charged Friel with battery. The legal definition of
battery is “an intentional unpermitted act causing harmful or offensive contact
with the "person" of another.”
However, the dispute was
settled when ““The battery case of Mattie Keenan and disturbance of the peace
case of Mrs. Friel were both withdrawn yesterday on payment of costs
each.”
In July 1885 James
Keenan, “proprietor of the Denver House”, was arrested and charged with having
accepted stolen property consisting of thirty boxes of cigars which had been
stolen from Louis Garff’s saloon in Lehi, Utah. When the officers went to
Keenan’s place to recover the goods, he refused to give them up and was
arrested.
This altercation between
Friel, who was the landlady, and the wife of James Keenan, the proprietor
of the Denver House, may have precipitated Keenan moving into Philip Hall’s
two-story brick building next door. Perhaps his arrest in July also had
something to do with his departure from 241 South, or it may have been simply
that Mrs. Friel was going to occupy the space herself: operating her own
business.
The 1885 September Fire
In early September 1885
a fire destroyed the Denver House and damaged adjacent buildings. “Shortly
after four o’clock this morning, a summer kitchen in the rear of some buildings
on Fifth West Street, opposite the D. & R.G. W. passenger station, was
discovered to be on fire. The alarm was given and the depot watchman, after
firing three shots from his revolver to arouse the neighborhood, telephones the
alarm to the City Hall. The flames quickly communicated to the two main
buildings, which were built of wood and the roof of a two-story structure
alongside.”
“The firemen had a
stream from the hydrant on the burning buildings in about twenty minutes from
the time of the first alarm and extinguished the flames which had caught on the
S.G. Read’s newsstand. The two lumber buildings, the property of Mrs. Friel,
were burned to the ground, and the roof of the brick building, belonging to
Philip Hall, destroyed, and the place otherwise damaged.”
“Mr. Hall’s building has
been occupied as the Colorado Saloon and hotel, Mrs. Friel’s houses had been
occupied by Mr. Keenan, for a boarding and lodging house, and he was moving his
stock into the Hall building while Mrs. Friel was placing a stock in her own
houses, with the intention of starting in business. The boarders who were
lodging in the premises were aroused but saved very little property.”
“The losses, so far as
can be ascertained are: S. [Samuel] G. Read, building and stock, damaged to the
extent of $100; no insurance, Mrs. Friel, building and goods $2,500; insurance
with Darke and Co. $1000. Mr. [Philip] Hall building $3,000 insurance with T.R.
Jones $1,700.”
“The stock in the Hall
building was almost entirely destroyed and amounted to about $1500 making a
total loss of about $6600 with $3200 insurance. No definite cause of the fire
is given, though it was probably the result of accident or carelessness, rather
than the work of incendiary,”
Another account of the
losses due to the fire stated that Hannah Friel’s losses to her property was
about “$3500 however she only had $2000 worth of insurance.”
Mrs. Hannah Friel Moves
from Block 63
Mrs. Hannah Friel must
have gave up her lease and she later remarried a man named Daniel E Merritt in
1887. However, her death certificate showed she had also remarried a man named
William Strong after her second husband, as that she was listed as “Hanna
Strong,” and her marital status was given as “widow”.
The 1900 federal census
of Kaysville listed 76-year-old Hannah as married to 63-year-old William Strong
who gave his occupation as “painter”. She stated she was the mother of four
children with two still living. In the census it was stated the couple was
married 34 years [1866] which is obviously not true.
William Strong
died in 1908 of “old Age” and Hannah died 1913 in Kaysville, Davis County, Utah
where she resided. She died of Stomach cancer and was buried in the Kaysville
cemetery without a grave marker.
James Keenan’s Lawsuits
As for James Keenan, in
October 1886 he filed a lawsuit against the Denver & Rio Grande Railway for
$535.75, “board money”, allegedly due him through an understanding with William
H. Bancroft, who was General Superintendent for the Railway. Bancroft had
been superintendent of the Utah Division of the Rio Grande headquartered in
Salt Lake City while Col. D.C. Dodge was general manager of the entire system.
In the “Suit of James F
Keenan, a hotel keeper near the depot;” Keenan alleged that in July 1884,
“the time of the Denver & Rio Grande trouble, he boarded seventy-two
laborers on the road, on Mr. Bancroft verbal order that the gentleman told him
he was Superintendent of the D & R G Western that he could not pay
the men for a few days, but if he [Keenan] would board them it would be all
right.” These men were most likely boarded in the Denver House.
“On this he [Keenan]
says he boarded the men until the bill reached the above proportions none of it
was ever paid and he instituted a suit to recover with interest and
costs. Keenan and his pretty daughter swore to these facts. There was
another witness, but he was so drunk Keenan’s attorney asked till this morning
to sober him up.”
At the trial “Bancroft
testified and “denied positively that he ever told Keenan he was superintendent
of the Denver & Rio Grande Western” and that company was not “in existence
till August 1885.” In 1884, Bancroft said he was simply acting for the
Colorado company. The jury returned a verdict against Keenan with
“no cause of action.”
After James Keenan had
left the Denver House, in March 1887, a Thomas Collins was arrested and charged
with battery upon James Keenan. The “offense took place in the rear of the Post
Office during the sitting of the district Court.” No more information was
given to as why Collins attacked Keenan and by 1889 Keenan evidently had moved
to Ogden. That is last known reference to him.
The Sullivan Saloon
257 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
Patrick J Sullivan
[1851-1898] was a ‘saloon keeper’” at 257 South Fifth [Sixth] West in 1890 with
his residence being the same an advertisement from that year listed
“Cheap -One box Mattress 1 good cook stove, 5 lunch counter chars Call at 257
South 5th West.”
In January 1888. Patrick
Sullivan was fined $25 for disturbing the peace.
A news report from 1891
stated “a man with a badly scratched hand showed up at police headquarters late
last night stating a man had bit him in Sullivan’s saloon of Fifth [Sixth] west
street, where upon he reciprocated the delicate attention by ripping the
sawdust out of him.” A tribune reporter went to investigate and “made the
rounds of the Fifth street saloons but the neighborhood was as quiet as a
Quaker Meeting and had been so everyone said.”
This 257 South location
was gone according to the 1898 Sanborn Map as there is not a building or
address for this spot.
Andrew O’Grady’s Colorado
Saloon
237 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
After the fire of
September 1885, Andrew W. O’Grady, saloonkeeper of the Colorado
Saloon, continued to be open for business. The proprietor, about two weeks
after the fire, “was charged with battery on a road construction laborer named
David O’Hare, “at present one of the delegations sent to the city gravel beds.”
Assault on David O Hare
David O’Hare appears to
have created trouble in the saloon and was thrown out by O’Grady who afterwards
struck O’Hare with a cane.
“Andrew O’Grady,
proprietor of a saloon opposite the D. & R.G.W. depot was tried this
morning for battery committed on David O’Hare on Saturday last. O’Hare made
himself too offensive in the saloon, and the proprietor ejected him and
afterwards went out and struck him with a cane.” O’Grady was fined $10, and
O’Hare was according to the papers “now serving a sentence in the city
jail.” The following month of October, David O’Hare was arrested again
for drunkenness and vagrancy and was back in jail.
Vice Among Some Indigent Youths.
In the same September
1885 Deseret News Police Court account of the charge of battery brought against
Andrew O’Grady, there was report of some vice among some indigent youths. “Six
youthful tramps were brought in this morning, charged with vagrancy and
trespass by sleeping in a barn without permission. Their names were John
Fleming, Mike Mooney, John Lee, Albert Monroe, Frank Jackson, and Joseph
Crank.”
“Fleming claimed to have
come from Montana and Jackson said he was on his way to his home in Iowa. The
others were from California. All plead guilty to the charge of vagrancy, except
Jackson, who admitted the trespass.”
“The depths of
depravity and vice into which Mooney, Lee, and Crank had fallen was, according
to their own stories, shocking; the youngest of them being 14 years old and the
eldest 19. Each culprit was fined $20 with the alternative of 20 days’ labor,
except Jackson, whose case was continued until this afternoon.”
The Salt Lake Herald
wrote of the youths, “It is safe to say to say that this gang is the hardest that
has ever disgraced the walls of the city jail for many a year, and some of them
have fallen so low as to be almost beyond the pale of humanity , and approach
to beasts. Young Crank is perhaps one of the hardest of the who evinced a
knowledge of vice and its surroundings such as to make even a Tribune Reporter
blush.”
Coincidently the next
time the drunkard David O’Hare was mentioned for being inebriated in “Police
Items” account was in 1887. Following his court appearance, “youthful offenders
Richard Bubbles Arthur Curtis, William Paddock, John Ledford, and Daniel Henry”
were all charged with a sexual assault on a youth named Daniel Pryor while they
were being held in the city jail. Newspapers followed the accounts of the
sexual assault and William Paddock, who was the son of a prominent
anti-polygamy crusader, was especially singled out for notoriety and eventually
sent to the Mental Hospital in Provo.
Assault on Billy West
Andrew O’Grady was
granted a renewal of his liquor license in October 1885 but later was also back
in court on a charge of battery “on the person of William West” However “Billy
West, the only witness for the prosecution, flatly asserted that O’Grady had
not struck him and further that he never had any trouble with the defendant. He
explained the bruises on his face by saying that he had come into possession of
them by fallen down. O’Grady was released and West charged with being drunk and
fined $5.”
After that October
incident O’Grady seems to have disappeared from the record probably moving on,
as that by December 1885 the “Colorado Saloon directly opposite the Denver
& Rio Grande depot” was “re-opened” under the management of Peter Tomney
“the rotund caterer to the public appetite.” His partner was James Hillstead.
Peter Tomney and James
Hillstead’s Colorado Saloon
237 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
The Colorado
saloon under Tomney’s management was promoted as being “stocked with a complete
line of the choices wines, liquors, and cigars. The celebrated Fischer beer
will always be found on draught. Fine bottle goods a specialty and everything
included in the newly refitted place.”
Peter Tomney had his own
trouble with the law when he was arrested in July 1886 for selling liquor on
Sunday. He paid a $300 bond to be released. His troubles were mentioned in a
newspaper account the of some antics at the Colorado Saloon that ended up in
police court appeared at the end of July 1886.
Girls in Male Attire & Singing and Dancing
“In the Police Court
yesterday a bright and rather good-looking Danish girl was arraigned on the
charges of disturbing the peace. It appears that she and another girl named
Belle Edmunds, had donned male attire, and started out with a couple of male
friends to get a glass of beer in a saloon. Not being satisfied with
this, they joined a crowd of revelers in the back room of Tomney &
Hillsteads’ and helped make Rome howl. When they emerged from the beer hall,
they cut up a few antics in the alley way behind the Wasatch Block and were
finally run in by the police.”
“On the way to jail they
indulged in a few hysterics and sobbed and cried bitterly. The mother of one of
them and the employer of the other were sent for and soon arrived with proper
clothing for them. The Edmund girls failed to appear for trial and the amount
of her bail $25 was forfeited. It is understood that she has gone to Butte.
Sentence in the case of the other girl was postponed until today at 2.
The defendant is very penitent, and it is more than probable that the lesson
learned will be a valuable one.”
The actions of the girls
led to Peter Tomney and his partner James Hillstead to being arrested at the
first of August, “P. Tomney of the firm Tomney and Hillstead , saloon keepers,
in whose establishment the disgraceful proceedings referred to Friday evening
are said to have occurred, was arrested Saturday, and charged with “keeping a
disorderly saloon” by allowing music, singing, dancing and other revels to go
on in the Colorado Saloon.”
At the court hearing it
was said that ‘the evidence showed the place to be a very low dive, and the
defendant was fined $25. An appeal was taken.” Tomney appealed the police court
decision in October. The case went before a Grand Jury in November which
heard evidence against Tomney.
The Salt Lake
police, and “Mrs. Fanny Wright” testified to “some disgraceful scenes
such as can-can dancing and high kicks by females to banjo playing
accompaniment, being enacted in Tomney’s on July 29th last.”
“Tomney put a number of
soldiers and citizens on the stand himself,” who testified that “there was
little noise or music at his place on the night in question, and that he had
stopped it at once. The jury took the other view of it and speedily found him
guilty.” A trial was set for December.
The Herald Republican
newspaper wrote, “The city won a victory in the suit against P. Tomney for
keeping a disorderly house. The city not being in the habit of winning
victories in the District Court, owing in the complexion there, this case is
worth noting.”
In December 1886, “this
afternoon Peter Tomney, who appealed a conviction in Justice Pyper’s court on a
charge of permitting music, dancing etc., in his saloon, and who was again
convicted in the Third District Court was called for a sentence this afternoon.
Judge [Charles] Zane imposed a fine of $25 and costs amounting in all to about
$85. The original penalty in police court was $25.”
Tomney eventually left
Fifth West by 1888, after selling the saloon to James K Johnston and Frank F.
Raymond and when he was referred to as the “the Main Street saloonkeeper”
who “plead guilty to the charge of selling liquor again on Sunday and fined $40.”
James K Johnston and Frank F Raymond’s Western Saloon
237-241 South Fifth
[Sixth] West
In 1889 Johnston and
Raymond were granted a liquor license and in March 1890, Edmund Butterworth
sold a lease to Johnston and Raymond for the saloon they renamed “The Western.”.
The 1890 City Directory for Salt Lake City
listed James K Johnston and Frank F Raymond’s Saloon at 241 South Fifth [Sixth]
West. The bar was known as the “Western Saloon” officially but mostly
referred to as the “Raymond and Johnson Saloon.” The Salt Lake Herald
Republican called the Western Saloon “one of the hellholes that are suffered to
exist near the Rio Grande Western depot.” Raymond and Johnston were also
proprietors of “the resort known as the Alhambra on West Temple near the
Natatorium.”
James K Johnston
James K Johnston
[1840-1891] was a native of McDuff, Scotland. His surname was often
misspelled as “Johnson.” He and his wife Eliza Jane Kendall Johnston
[1855-1909] lived in St. Louis, Missouri before coming to Salt Lake City. They
were married in 1874 in St. Louis, Missouri. The 1877 city directory for St.
Louis Missouri listed him as operating a restaurant on Seventh Street.
He was listed in the
1880 federal census as “Keeps restaurant” and his 25-year-old wife was
“keeping House”. The couple must have been operating a boarding house on
Seventh Street as well as the census listed nine men and one woman as boarders
in his household. The men were single, all but one, and were mostly in their
twenties and thirties. Their occupations were listed as being “baggage men,” a
teamster, an engineer, a brakeman, a steamboat cook and restaurant cooks.
The one woman in the household was Eliza J Johnston’s mother.
Sometime between 1881
and 1886 James K Johnston and wife relocated to Salt Lake City where he was the
proprietor of the Windsor Hotel by 1887. He advertised, his establishment
as “Windsor Hotel On the European Plan No 144 and 146 West First South
Street Salt Lake City. Large Rooms Newly Furnished and first class. Rates $1.00
and $1.50 per day.”
The 1888 city directory
of Salt Lake continued to list James K Johnston as the proprietor of the Winsor
Hotel at 144 and 146 West First South Street which he operated until 1890.
In May 1890 “The old
Windsor Hotel is being demolished preparatory to the erection on its site of a
four-story business block to cost $80,000 or $40,000. The building was
demolished by June.”
The 1890 city directory
now listed Johnson’s residence as 36 South West Temple which was the address of
his saloon, the Alhambra. He was in partnership with Frank Raymond, and
they operated another saloon called the Western on Fifth [Sixth] West across
from the Rio Grande Depot.
Johnston died on 7
January 1891 of apoplexy, at the age 50 years. His funeral was held in
his Alhambra saloon, and he was buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery. At the time
is business partner Frank Raymond was on trial for murder.
James K. Johnston’s
widow Eliza J Johnson inherited his share of the business and was the appointed
the “administratrix” of her husband’s estate as that they were childless.
She sold her interests in the two saloons, The Western and the Alhambra, in
October 1891.
“In the matter of the
deceased, the undersign administratrix of the estate of the deceased will sell
at public action to the highest bidder for cash gold coin of the United States
on Thursday, the 15th of October 1891 at 10’Olock a.m. at No. 36
South West Temple street , Salt Lake City, known as the Alhambra saloon the
following personal property to wit: One adobe building, bar fixtures, stock in
trade, pool table, furniture, stoves, bedsteads, piano, tables, chairs, lace
curtains, carpets, etc. etc..”
“And on Friday the 16th day of October 1891 at 10 o’clock a.m. at 239 and 245 South Fifth
West Street, Salt Lake City, the undersigned will sell the following personal
property to wit: Four frame buildings, bar and restaurant fixtures, etc.,
etc.”
The 1891 city Directory
listed her as the widow of James K. Johnston and residing at 250 South West
Temple however the widow returned back east to Missouri after the death of her
husband.
Frank F. Raymond
Frank Raymond was about
33 years old when he became a partner with James K. Johnston in two saloon
enterprises. Raymond’s history was given in court testimony when tried for
murder. He stated, “I was born in Richmond Virginia, and I lived there until I
was fifteen-year-old, [1869] when I went to New York. I lived there until 1878
going to school part of the time. In 1878 I went to Denver & Leadville.
Then I went to Old Mexico with a surveying party. In 1885 I returned to Denver
& then went to Wyoming where I worked for the Swan Cattle company.”
“After that I came to
Salt Lake and engaged in canvassing for the Utah Gazetteer. Then I went to
Montana and returned in 1888 and worked for the Western Weekly. After that
paper suspended, I went into the saloon business with Mr. Johnson.”
The Western Saloon which
took the place of the Colorado continued to have a rowdy reputation. In
February 1890 it was reported, “There
was little row in Raymond’s Fifth [Sixth] West saloon at ten O’clock last
night. Raymond and a man named Burton were playing pool when they got into an
altercation which ended in Raymond striking at Burton with his cue and after a
few passes and a knock down by Burton, Raymond pulled his gun which was knocked
to the floor and secured by a third party.”
“Raymond then jumped
behind the bar and got another gun, but this was also taken from him and after
a general racket in which beer mugs flew like meteors, Raymond was arrested and
taken to the City Hall. He was released on leaving $30.”
The Shooting of Richard
J “Mickey” O’Brien
Raymond was charged with
murder of Richard J. “Mickey” O’Brien on 19 December 1890 by shooting him
within the saloon, “the scene of a bloody tragedy.”
Mickey O’Brien, also
known as Michael, was employed by the Rio Grande Western yards as a night
switchman, and “those who knew him say that he was not of a quarrelsome
disposition.” He was the brother-in-law of Mike Hogan, “one of the oldest
conductors on the Utah and Northern railroad, running between Ogden and
Pocatello.”
On the other hand,
“Frank Raymond, the man who fired the fatal shot, is well known as to the
police as a tough character and a desperate man. Members of the old force as
well as the new testify to this. “Why,” said a member of the police force last
evening, “this man Raymond has given us more trouble than all the saloon
keepers of the city combined. He seems to imagine that he is above the law- that
when ordinances and statutes are framed, they are not meant for him.”
“Residing as he does, in
the out of the way locality, he has always tried to impress everyone with the
idea that he was monarch of all he surveyed and his right to rule should not be
questioned. He is a tough of the worse stripe.”
The events leading up to
the shooting were as follows as presented by the prosecution against Frank
Raymond. “On Friday evening last [December 19] Richard J O’Brien, commonly
called Mickey, was in Raymond and Johnson’s saloon , known as the Western
saloon and that he was engaged in playing pool with other men. A man by the
name of Morrissey invited O’Brien to the bar to drink. Shortly afterward he
walked to the end of the bar and reached behind it for his lantern which he had
placed there on his entering the saloon.”
“He was engaged as night
switchman at the depot and his lantern was necessary for his work. O’Brien and
Raymond, one of the proprietors engaged in an earnest conversation as evident
by O’Brien shaking his fore finger at Raymond” and there was no provocation “to
justify him [Raymond] doing as he did, firing three shots from a revolver into
O’Brien’s body the last two of which took deadly effect.”
Several newspapers
carried reports of the shooting interviewing several eyewitnesses all who gave
various accounts depending on where they were and with whom they were
associated. The saloon was only about eighteen feet wide and at night there
were between 25 and 30 men in the establishment.
It appeared that “about
7 o’clock O’Brien was in Johnson & Raymond’s saloon, better known as the
Western Saloon, where he got into a quarrel with Frank Raymond, one of the
proprietors, when Raymond drew a revolver, and fired three shots in “rapid
succession” at O’Brien, “one striking him over the heart and the other in the
abdomen, while the third landed in the wall at the end of the counter.”
Morgan W. Rowland, a son
of Benjamin Rowland and the bartender, “who was present at the time the affray
occurred,” gave the following version of events leading up to the shooting.
“Two men were playing pool in the saloon, and after they finished, called three
or four of their friends up to the bar, one of the men saying, ‘If you have any
friends, call them up,’ and O’Brien was called up.”
“They were pretty full
and one of the men said, ‘Let’s go home’ and began to drag the other man out,
when his friend threatened to slap him if he was not left alone.”
“O’Brien was pretty full
and attempted to interfere when Raymond said, ‘Mickey they are quarreling among
themselves, let them alone.’ Raymond and O’Brien then passed words and
Raymond said he was capable of running his own business when O’Brien said, “You
s___ [son] of a b____ [bitch] I’d slap you, but you are not worth it.’”
“Raymond again repeated
that he was capable of running his house and appeared to be as pleasant as he
could. O’Brien stepped to the end of the counter to get his lantern which he
always kept there, and the three men were standing close together. O’Brien then
struck at Raymond, but I do not know whether he was shot or not. I was back of
the bar and when I saw there was going to be trouble, I jumped over the bar and
rushed out the door as several others did who were there. There were some beer
glasses thrown and I heard a couple of shots fired, but that is all I know
about it. The two had always been friends before this as far as I ever heard.”
Another employee of the
Western Saloon was C. B. Rimmell, who testified, “I was working at Raymond’s
saloon. O’Brien was there and interfered with two men who had been playing
pool. Raymond told O’Brien not to interfere and O’Brien threatened to slap
him.”
“After some words
O’Brien walked down to the end of the bar and slapped the defendant,[Frank
Raymond] who stepped back. O’Brien followed him up and knocked him down and
then threw a beer glass at him.”
“Immediately after the
glass was thrown, a shot was fired, followed by the others. O’Brien went on in
behind the bar and grabbed Raymond by the throat and dragged him out.”
“Frank Kelly went up and
tried to separate them, and with the assistance of myself and Mr. Johnson
succeeded.”
“O’Brien said he had
been shot. I telephoned for a doctor. The shooting occurred at 5 minutes to 7.
O’Brien was pretty full, and Raymond didn’t want him to go to work on that
account.”
One of the men who had
been playing pool was James Murphy. He affirmed, “I am a laborer. Two
acquaintances were playing pool and I kept the game, after that I went into the
dining room and there heard the shooting. I went back in the saloon, and I saw
O’Brien at end of the bar about five feet from Raymond.”
Another witness was
August “Gus” Nielson confirmed that the altercation began with O’Brien
interfering with some men playing pool. It was noted that Neilsen spoke
“English poorly and with difficulty expressed himself. He stated “I am working
at the Knutsford Hotel. I was at the Western. Two drunken men who had been
playing pool got into a wrangle about going home, and O’Brien interfered.
Raymond told him to leave the men alone and O’Brien called him a son of a
bitch. Then they had some words and O’Brien went in the back of the bar and
struck Raymond. Then he struck him again and I heard glass breaking. This was
followed by the shots. Raymond threw the gun out from behind the counter and
then O’Brien got him by the throat and dragged him out from the bar, Kelly and
some others interfered and parted the men.
Frank Kelly, who was
boarding at the Western Hotel at the time, stated, “I was in the Western Saloon.
There were two men in there who had been playing pool. Both of them were full
and one wanted to go home. They were wrangling between themselves when O’Brien
interfered and called one of them a liar.”
“ Raymond told O’Brien
to let them alone as they were friends. O’Brien walked up to the bar and
reaching over to Raymond snapped his fingers at him and said he could lick him
or anybody that ever worked for him. Raymond said, “You shouldn’t talk to me
like that I have been more of a brother to you than a friend.”
“O’Brien then walked
down to the end of the bar, picked up his lantern and struck Raymond with his
left hand. He then picked up a beer glass and threw it at Raymond who went
down. O’Brien knocked Raymond down, before he commenced throwing beer glasses
at him.”
“ Then three shots were
fired, and I went behind the bar and saw O’Brien dragging Raymond by the
collar. I took him off and got him over to the pool table when he said, “I am
shot.’”
Kelly added “I commenced
working for Raymond a short time after the shooting but quit three weeks ago
[February 1891] and am now working at the Warm Springs.”
William Halstead, an
employee of the Union Pacific Railway Company, reported that he had only been
in the Western Saloon “about 15 minutes” when the killing occurred. He said he
was not intoxicated but admitted he “had been drinking pretty freely on the day
of the shooting.”
Halstead testified that
“he “heard Raymond speak to O’Brien, draw a revolver from under his clothes and
fired at O’Brien while at the bar.” O’Brien then “exclaimed, ‘Frank has shot
me, and I do not know why he did it.”
Halstead stated, that
“being a cripple, I rushed from the bar room as quickly as possible. As I went
through the door, I heard the crash of glass, on returning I saw no fragments”
He said he saw “Mickey was on the floor groaning. He was calling for someone to
relieve him from his suffering by cutting him open. Upon examination, I found a
gunshot wound in O’Brien’s right breast. There was another wound in the abdomen.”
Another man, named
Dominick McGowan, claimed he was “in the act of going into Raymond’s saloon
when the shooting took place.” He said, “Quite a crowd rushed out and in a few
minutes. I entered and saw O’Brien standing by the pool table. He was about to
fall, and I assisted him to the floor.”
Alfred Bennett testified
that he was in “Raymond’s saloon” the evening of the shooting. “I saw O’Brien
there and took a cigar from him. I then went out for a friend, and when I
reached Hegney’s, I heard the shots. I then returned and met Raymond at the
door. I entered and saw O’Brien. He said Raymond had shot him without
provocation.”
News of the shooting
quickly spread, and “a large crowd soon gathered, and a voice was to
shout. “Why don’t we lynch him?”
James Hegney, proprietor
of the Rio Grande Hotel and Saloon stated, “I keep a hotel near the Rio
Grande depot. I went into the Raymond Saloon soon after the shooting and saw
O’Brien leaning against the pool table. He was in such pain he wanted someone to
kill him. He said that Raymond had shot him but didn’t know why.”
Hegney added, “I did not
try to incite the crowd to lynch Raymond, but I did say that he was a
cold-blooded murderer and that he ought to be strung up for it. I was only one
of more than a hundred who said the same thing. Raymond drew a gun on me once
and I have not been passionately fond of him since.”
After being shot the
“wounded man staggered a little and a friend standing near, seated him in a
chair. Doctors George J Field, Allen Fowler, and Samuel H. Pinkerton were
summoned as were the police.
Police Officer John W
Jenkins testified, “I was on duty near Raymond’s saloon and heard two
shots fired.” He and Officer Robert T. Thornton upon entering the saloon saw
O’Brien in a chair who said to Officer Jenkins, “I don’t see what Raymond
wanted to kill me for, I did nothing to him.” Office Thornton went through the
restaurant, found Raymond, and arrested him.
“One of the policemen
entered the crowd and quietly took Raymond outside and boarding a streetcar,
was soon out of the reach of the maddening crowd. There was considerable
excitement for some time, but the idea of a lynching party was talked of, but
the idea was soon abandoned.”
Dr. Samuel
Pinkerton who attended O’Brien saw that “both wounds were fatal.” O’Brien
was taken to St. Mary’s hospital and “at last accounts [19 December] was still
living but the physicians were momentarily expecting that death would claim its
victim.” A priest named Father Fitzgerald was called to administer the last
sacrament to him.
O’Brien lingered through
the night and in the morning, he was visited by Commissioner J.W. Greenman. He
stated, “I went to the hospital the morning after the shooting and saw O’Brien
who was apparently dying. He said he was feeling very badly and suffering
fearfully although his mind was clear. He said, “I’m a goner I haven’t much
time here.”
“I then asked if he was
willing and able to make a statement. He was. I administered the oath and Fred
McGurrin took down his statement.”
O’Brien claimed, “I
don’t know exactly how it started. Anyhow, Raymond fire the gun between the bar
and the wall; he turned her loose. I don’t know why he did it. We had always
been friends and I bought my booze from him.”
“There were twenty-five
or thirty persons present. I was in great pain after being shot. I did not make
any movement toward him or strike him before he fired. After the first shot I
struck him with my open hand. I didn’t have the lantern in my hand when I
struck him.”
“I have known Raymond
for eight years. He was a train man at Evanston and afterward worked for my
brother at Cheyenne. I never had any trouble with him, but he had a racket with
a tailor in Ogden. They only abused each other though.”
Mickey O’Brien died on
20 December 1890 and an inquest was held. “Expert evidence has shown the
deceased came to his death by gunshot wounds fired by Raymond and we ask that
the defendant [Raymond] be held without bail to await the action of the grand
jury.
Salt Lake Deputy Sheriff
Joseph W. Burt testified that he visited the saloon where the shooting had
occurred. He said the room was eighteen feet wide and he found a bullet in the
east wall four feet and three inches above the floor.”
While Frank Raymond was
being held in jail his business partner, James K Johnston [1840-1891] died on 7
January 1891 of apoplexy, at the age 50 years. He left a widow Eliza who
inherited his share of the business.
Bail was set at $20,000
for Frank Raymond and he was indicted by a Grand Jury in February and was tried
in March. Raymond’s attorneys argued that Raymond shot O’Brien in
self-defense.
At the trial, Raymond
testified on his behalf. He claimed, “I am thirty-seven years of age [1854]. I
became acquainted with Richard O’Brien at my place of Fifth West Street some
six or seven months ago. He had been hanging around my place for some weeks and
was looking for a job on the Rio Grande Western. He was about to be arrested
for vagrancy one day, when I told the officer he was working for me. I put him
to work in our kitchen for a day or two and then he got work.”
“I never worked with him
on the Union Pacific, nor did I ever work for his brother or for Fritz Riepen.
I never knew O’Brien in Ogden.”
“On the day of the
shooting I had been cashing pay checks of the railroad men, and I had about
$3,000 on hand for that purpose. I kept it in a money drawer back of the bar. I
had my pistol with me because I considered it necessary on account of the
amount of money I had there.”
“O’Brien came into the
saloon a little after 6 o’clock in the evening. We were good friends. When he
was sober, he was a gentleman, but when drunk he was a brute. I was behind the
bar making up the checks when he came in and took a drink or two. After three
or four more drinks, he went out, but returned in a few minutes.”
“At the time two men,
Morrisey and Dobbins, who had been playing pool, were wrangling about one of
them going home. O’Brien interfered with them, and I reached over the bar and
said to him, ‘Mickey, leave those men alone; they are all right.”
“He replied, ‘What have
you got to say about it, you little son of a bitch.’ I said, “that is no way to
talk to me Mickey. I want you to leave these men alone.” With that he snapped
his finger and said, ‘I will do you up in a holy minute.” I again remonstrated
with him, and he commenced muttering and walked down to the end of the bar
where his lantern was. He picked up the lantern and said, “God damn you
Raymond, you are a son of a bitch. You ain’t worth slapping.”
“He set his lantern on
the bar and lighted a match but blew it out, reaching down for a schooner [a tall beer glass], and said, ‘You son of a bitch. I will do you
anyhow.’ He struck me on the elbow with his lantern and then let fly the
schooner which just grazed my head as I fell. I said, “keep away Mickey,” and
at the same time I endeavored to fire over his head.”
“He kept right on
advancing and picked up another schooner which he threw at me but missed me,
then I shot twice. He grabbed me by the throat, I being down on the floor,
reached for the revolver, which I threw out on the floor.”
“He dragged me out of
the bar when Frank Kelley and my partner [Johnston] took him off. He sat down
in a chair and said, ‘My God I am done up.’ Five minutes later I was arrested.”
“The crowd began to
congregate about the place immediately after the shooting. I shot him because I
was afraid of him. I thought my life was in danger I fired on O’Brien not
because I was angry, but because I was afraid. O’ Brien was not so drunk but
what he could handle himself.”
The jury found Frank
Raymond not guilty, and he was acquitted but as that his partner Johnston had
died, Johnston’s wife wanted to sell the saloon.
In October 1891 a notice
was published “at 239 and 245 South Fifth West Street will sell to the
following personal property to-wit: Four frame buildings, bar and restaurant
fixtures, glassware, pool table, mirrors, stoves, dishes, tables, etc. Eliza J
Johnston administratrix of the estate of James Johnson deceased.”
By November, the firm of
“Raymond and Johnson” were out of business. A liquor licensing committee
“recommended that $100 be allowed the firm of Raymond and Johnson as a rebate
on liquor license on account of the business having abandoned. Adopted.”
While Frank Raymond
stated in Court that he never worked for Fritz Riepen, he evidently knew him
well enough to be bondsmen with him in December 1891 for “kid” Lawrence who had
been arrested for safe cracking.
The 1891 city directory
listed Frank Raymond as residing at 250 South West Temple but is not included
in the 1892 city directory. He also drops out of Salt Lake newspapers.
Henry Buhring and the Denver Beer Hall
579 West Second South
Prior to the Albany Hotel, Henry Buhring’s Denver Beer Hall
Saloon and Restaurant existed on the corner of Fifth West and Second South at
the address of 579 West. After the Albany Hotel was built the addresses were
changed from the 570’s to the 590’s but eventually after the turn of the
Twentieth Century reverted back to the 570’s.
Henry Buhring [1845-1898] a German native, was in Utah as
early as 1873 when he was notified that he had letters in the post office at
Salt Lake. The 1874 Salt Lake City directory listed him as a “butcher” by trade
but by 1875, he was the proprietor of the Denver Beer Hall on Main Street,
where he advertised, serving “this celebrated Beer pure from the brewery with
lunch unsurpassed in the city at the new Denver Beer Hall, one door north of
McKimmin’s stables.”
A newspaper account however from October 1875
reported that a fire on Main Street in Salt Lake City destroyed Buhring’s
Denver Beer Hall, and the McKimmin’s livery stables, along with seven other
businesses. McKimmins fortunately managed to “remove his horses and carriages before
the stable burned and was consumed.”
A month later, Henry Buhring announced that he had formed a
partnership with a man named John Griffin, who bought out Charley
Yeoman’s saloon. They called their place The Phoenix, “a delightful place where
the cup that cheers but not inebriates makes merry the honest heart.” They
advertised that they “will keep on fresh tap Wagner’s best beer, the best brand
of liquors, and cigars, and lunches unsurpassed in the city. Four doors north
of Walker House.” The Walker House Hotel was on Main Street between Third South
and Second South.
Evidently the partnership with Griffin did not last, as
that in 1876 Buhring was partners with a William Chapman in bar, he called the
“Denver Hall”. He advertised “here refreshments, wines of the best quality, and
foaming beer that would make the lips of even Gambrinus smack with a smile of
happiness are served with promptness and politeness.” Gambrinus was a legendary
hero celebrated as an “icon of beer, brewing, joviality, and joie de vivre.” In
European culture Gambrinus was a man who had an enormous capacity for drinking
beer.
Buhring’s Gardens
By 1877, Buhring left downtown and leased the Eddins
Brewery “on State Road three miles south of the city”, about Seventeen South
today on State Street. The new place was called Buhring’s Gardens,
“filled up in good style” and advertised as “just the place for an afternoon
drive.”
This establishment was more than a saloon but was also a
restaurant with grounds large enough to host a “shooting club” and games of
“ten pin”. It was promoted as a family place that served “Lunch, ice cream
summer drinks, all kinds of beer or alcohol.”
“Just the place for
an afternoon enjoyment for families’ social Party. Every Thursday Olsen’s
Band and James Currie prompter in Attendance.”
Buhring’s Gardens held Fourth of July celebrations with
“fireworks, dancing, and all kinds of amusements” as well as July
24th activities. “Pioneer Day Monday July 25 everybody is invited to
spend the day at Buhring’s two and a half miles south of the city where all can
indulge in Rifle Shooting, Pigeons and Glass Ball shooting, Croquet, Ten Pins,
and other games. Plenty of shade. Everything pleasant so that you can sit in
ease and chat over old times and thank fortune that somebody pioneered the way
to Utah and congratulate yourselves that it wasn’t you.”
Although the Buhring’s Gardens was promoted as a
recreational resort, the saloon aspect attracted its share of trouble. In 1879.
“Two individuals accompanied by a couple of women went into the Buhring’s
saloon and called for some beer. One the women apparently not liking the
beverage threw the contents of her glass upon the carpet.”
“Buhring remonstrated when she broke into violent abuse of
him and to make it more binding tapped him on the nose. Afterwards she went
into the part of the building used by the family and finding Mrs. Buhring there
attacked her with tooth and nail.”
“In all these misdeeds, she was aided and abetted by her
male companions and as a consequence all three of the offenders tried to
explain their conduct to Justice Pyper’s satisfaction.” The abusive woman who
was named Jenny Wilson was fined $99 for her assault upon Mrs. Buhring.
Another episode occurred in 1882 when 30-year-old Enoch
Ables with some African Americans sought to drink in the saloon. Enoch Ables
was the son of Elijah Ables who was one of the first African Americans to be
brought into Utah in 1847 as a slave.
“On Sunday afternoon five “cullud” gentlemen drove down the
State Road stopping at Buhring’s place asked for liquor. This Buhring refused
to give them, the individuals already pretty well mixed.”
“One of the fellows, Enoch Ables, was particularly
boisterous and was induced to leave the saloon at the point of a club. Ables
went to the wagon, secured a pistol, and returning, administered Buhring
several well directed blows on the head with it and also struck an assistant
named Clark, on the head. Ables was arrested and fined.”
After this incident, also in 1882 Henry Buhring sold the
Buhring’s Gardens. “At Buhring’s old place on State Road, we say old place for
Henry retired from proprietorship and possession, was given to Messrs. Pitt and
Caswell members of the Salt Lake Shooting Club. He had moved his family to a
home at 315 South Fourth [Fifth] West to be near where he was having
constructed a saloon and restaurant on Second South to cater to the passengers
and workers of the new Denver & Rio Grande Depot and rail yards.”
The Denver Beer Hall
In July 1883 Henry Buhring made an application to do
business as a retail liquor dealer near the Denver & Rio Grande depot. An
article from 31 July 1883 stated, “Henry Buhring is erecting a beer hall near
the D.&R.G. depot.”
He placed an advertisement for the new “Denver Beer Hall
and Restaurant” stating “Henry Buhring wishes to announce to the public
that in connection with the Denver Beer Hall opposite the D.&R.G. Depot, he
will open a restaurant on Monday September 3rd where meals will be served at
all hours. The tables will present everything in season and the business will
be conducted after the manner of first-class chop houses.”
The actual location of Buhring’s Saloon was never reported
in newspaper accounts or in the City directories. It was always mentioned as on
the corner of Second South in the Denver & Rio Grande district. It was
north of James Hegney’s Rio Grande Hotel which was located in Lot Four on Fifth
[Sixth] West. The building contained a restaurant, saloon, and barber shop.
Buhring had leased a section of Lot Five in Block 53 from the heirs of
Theophilus Williams who was one of the original owners.
The 1884 the City directory listed Buhring as residing at
315 South Fourth [Fifth] east and his occupation was given as “Saloon
Keeper.”
The Spring of 1885 was not a pleasant time for Henry
Buhring as the rowdy nature of the Denver & Rio Grande district began to
emerge. On March 21, a “enterprising burglar went a burglarizing and broke into
Henry Buhring’s saloon on the Denver & Rio Grande corner of Second South
and got away with over $50 worth of liquor and cigars.”
John Riley & Edward Wilson’s Cutting Affray
Less than a week after the burglary, John Riley, and Edward
Wilson, both section hands working for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad,
were involved in a “cutting affray” shortly after leaving Buhring’s
saloon.
John Riley and Edward Wilson had been on a “mutual tear
during a great part of the day”, when “they issued from Buhring’s saloon at the
depot and sent off together in a northerly direction.”
John Riley earlier in January had been swindled by a man
named W.H. Jones, a telegraph operator, who also worked for the railroad. They
met while working in Colorado.
“United in the determination they would go to California
together. They came as far as Grand Junction where Jones, the much shrewder of
the two inveigles his comrade into a bagnio [brothel], and after rendering him
stupid with liquor, he helped himself to all Riley’s money, something like
$220.”
In the course of time Riley sobered up discovered his
loss and came to Salt Lake where he reported his loss to Captain Hawley,
“the detective of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad.
In Wells, Nevada, Jones was arrested with $150 on his
person. He claimed he was simply keeping the money for Riley.
W.H. Jones wrote his version of the events to save
his reputation, saying, “Riley is a man who is fond of liquor and when he has
money, gets on a spree and on New Year’s Eve he drank heavily. On Jan 2nd Riley
went with a party of men and waited at the Rio Grande hotel [in Grand
Junction]. I looked for him in the saloons and he was at a place called ‘Cheyenne
Emma.’ I saw Riley incapable of taking care of himself. I took what money he
had on his person and his watch, then went to bed.”
“He came to me the next day and said he had been robbed and
could not go to California. I told him I had his money. Mr. Mickel was present
when I handed the money back to him. I left sufficient money to pay his
expenses to Salt Lake where we would meet him. I had $150.”
“He did not come after waiting a night and a day. I had at
different times kept money for him as much as $175. Have not seen or heard from
Riley since nor do I know where he is.”
As that the “crime” was committed in Colorado and “Riley
had no disposition to prosecute as long as he recovered his money,” Jones was released.
“Riley was put in possession of the remnant of his funds, a sadder and wiser
man.”
In March 1885, Police Officer William Calder said he saw
the Wilson and Riley “standing on the bridge and thinking from their manner
that something was wrong.” He started over to the Denver Beer Hall “to see if
there was anything the matter there. He no sooner entered, then Riley came in
and sat down.”
“As he did so, Ollie [Oliver] Bess, who was working at the
depot, rushed in, and said, ‘arrest that man. He has stabbed a man up the
road!”
It was later afterward learned that Riley had met a boy,
just after he stabbed Wilson, and said to him “Go up the road there you will
find a man stabbed. The knife which inflicted the wound is a large jack knife
with a heavy blade.”
Riley who was apparently drunk “but not too drunk to start
for the back door,” to try to escape. He was nabbed and handcuffed by Officer
Calder, “just as his victim Wilson entered the front door, the blood streaming
from his neck.
Officer Calder said he heard Wilson say to Riley, “in a
husky voice, ‘What made you do it John?” but Riley “made no reply.” Officer
Calder “attempted to discern what had happened and asked Riley, ‘what the
trouble had been’ and he replied indifferently, ‘Oh nothing.”
In the meantime, “an express man” hurried the injured
Wilson to “Godbe Pitts & Company drug store” and with “the assistance of
two bystanders, lifted Wilson from his wagon whose face hands and clothes were
besmeared with blood and from a gash in whose neck a crimson stream was
constantly flowing.”
Wilson was taken to a doctor’s room but he was attended by
two nurses, “Mrs. Doctor Pratt and Mrs. Doctor Williams under the quick and
deft fingers the blood stains were removed, and the horrible gaping wound more
than an inch wide was sewed up, under the influence of alcohol, no expression
of pain once escaped his lips.” He asked several times if Riley had been
arrested, and “when answered in the affirmative he said he wanted him let go,
he didn’t know what he had been stabbed for and when asked if he would drink
some brandy he said “No brandy was what had caused his trouble”
When Dr. J. M. Benedict arrived at his office, “he said the
cut was not a dangerous one but if it penetrated a quarter of an inch further,
he would have bled to death.
After he was recovered “as to be let loose late in the evening,”
Wilson was reported about town “drunk as a lord.”
Later in the police court when John Riley was being held
for attempted murder, Edward Wilson was called to testify against him. However,
Wilson refused to be a cooperative witness. “He stated that he knew nothing
about how he got cut” as he was “crazy drunk, didn’t know who cut him or where
he was when he was cut and didn’t know whether he cut himself or not.” He
“exhibited a gash on his neck about three inches ling which was dangerous close
to the jugular.”
Another witness, named Richard Bynon, however, testified
that Riley and Wilson “were pretty full of liquor and Riley was standing on the
walk and Wilson was approaching him. Riley said, ‘Don’t come near me.’ Wilson
said ‘Come along’ or something to that effect than Riley drew a knife and
opened it raised it and brought it down on Wilson. He afterwards saw Wilson
covered with blood.”
John Riley “was bound over with a $800 bond and Edward
Wilson in the sum of $100 to assure their appearance in court. As neither could
post bail they languished in jail until a May court hearing.” Eventually John
Riley was released as that Wilson would not testify against him.
In July 1885, John Riley was arrested after confessing that
he stole forty boxes of cigars and sold to James Keenan, proprietor of the
Denver House, near the Rio Grande Depot. “The cigars were worth wholesale $56,
and the price paid by Kennan was $19, $6 in cash, a pair of boots and some meal
tickets.” The police went to Keenan “who refused to give them up or permit them
to be seen and soundly abused the officers for their visit. A warrant was
issued for Keenan on the charge of receiving stolen goods.”
The Denver Beer Hall Fire
Within weeks of the John Riley and Edward Wilson dust up,
in April 1885 “Shortly before 3 o’clock this morning the saloon belonging to
Mr. H. Buhring at the northeast corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West
streets opposite the Denver & Rio Grande depot was discovered to be on fire
and the alarm given. “Mr. Buhring who sleeps two Blocks away was promptly on
the ground.”
“The clang of fire bells at 3 in the morning” had the fire
brigade at the scene “as soon as the horses could convey them but there
was a considerable delay in getting water on the building as enough hose was
not brought down.” When the “hose carts were promptly out, water was
playing on the fire in a very short time taking in consideration that over a
thousand feet of hose had to be used in making the connection.”
“A stiff breeze fanned the flames” and the “light
frame” structure was soon one mass of blazes and embers. It was fortunate that
the wind blew the flames towards the street as otherwise adjoining buildings
would have been consumed.”
The fire started “on the east side of the structure and is
supposed to have been the work of an incendiary. Some of the men who burst open
the doors freely assert that coal oil or some other inflammable fluid had been
poured on the floors so that when the fire got from the one room into another
the whole room would be inflames almost instantly.”
The bartender, “who was also on the spot, stated that there
hadn’t been a fire in the house since last Saturday [April 25] .” Another
individual said “the fire first appeared at the rear of the main building
between it and the icehouse. So that the supposition that it was the work of an
incendiary was freely indulged in.”
Buhring told reporters that his view of the matter was
“that some party or parties with whom he has had been having some difficulty”
may “have taken this method of revenging themselves.”
It was reported that total loss to the property amounted to
about $4,000 but “could reach $6000” as that “there was $1000 stock of liquors
besides the furniture and fixtures.” A barbershop adjoining the saloon also
burned as well as an icehouse “containing about forty tons of ice, all
destroyed.”
A billiard table and two chairs were the only
articles saved from the fire. Henry Buhring only had $3000 insurance on the
place. But vowed to rebuild. “Buhring says that a substantial brick building
shall take the place of that destroyed as soon as possible.”
The Tragic Death of George Hill
In October 1885, Henry Buhring, who lived at 315 South
Fourth [Fifth] west, witnessed the accidental death of a young railroad
brakeman named George Hill, age 21 years old. He was a married man with a small
six-week-old child. Hill met his death at the terminus of the Utah and Nevada
Railroad on Fourth [Fifth] West. While doing some switching at the
terminus, Hill “stood on the track awaiting the approach of loaded ore cars.
His foot slipped and he fell beneath the wheels.
The accident as noticed by Henry Buhring “who immediately
called attention to the railroad men to stop the train but not before a couple
of wheels passed over the right side of his body.” Buhring was with the
man as he died from his injuries.
Buhring’s Mining Companies
Henry Buhring never rebuilt the Denver Beer Hall and by
1887 gave up the saloon business altogether and began to invest in mining
companies in Utah and Montana. In February 1887 “Henry Buhring carried a couple
of small bottles containing rich and valuable specimens of
gold.”
“Genial Henry” reported that a “company was being formed
for working and operating some gold fields” in Montana. He was a stockholder of
the Missoula Placer Mining Company and owned 12,500 shares valued at $5
each. The City directory of Salt Lake City in 1888 listed Buhring’s occupation
as “Miner.”
In 1890 Buhring was vice president and one of the incorporators
of the Alamo Mining Company in Carr Fork at Bingham. “Henry Buhring, under
whose management, the property is being worked.” In July 1891 he was
reported as being “very enthusiastic over prospects of the Alamo in Carr Fork
Bingham. He says they are down 84 feet. One assay made showed $8 gold and 13
silver and 48 lead and silver.” By November, it was reported that Alamo
Mine had “ two shifts” and the tunnel was now “215 feet and a contract to
run 200 feet further.” The mine was producing “considerable low-grade ore which
assay at $8 to $20 per ton.” Nine hundred feet of tram way was laid to
the mouth of the mine where a blacksmith shop was also in operation.
As a non-Mormon, by 1890 Henry Buhring was an active member
of the Liberal party. In 1892 Henry Buhring campaigned for the position of
“Sanitary Inspector one of the best paying jobs in the city government worth
around $10,000 a year”
The 1893 City directory listed Buhring as a “mining
operator” still residing at 315 South Fourth [Fifth] West.
The Death of Henry Buhring
In a death announcement published 27 Oct 1898, it stated
Henry Buhring “an old timer in Salt Lake, passed away yesterday after an
illness of only one day. He was in his earlier career, engaged in the liquor
business but for a number of years devoted his attention to mining with varying
successes. Heart failure was the cause if his death. He was not an old man
having only just completed his fifty-third birthday” The Buhring family still
resided at 315 South Fourth [Fifth] [Fifth west] when he died. Henry Buhring
was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City.
When Henry Buhring gave up his lease in Lot Five the Albany
Hotel was built on the location of the Denver Beer Hall. The address of 579
West was changed to 599 West Second South with the additional addresses of 597
West and 595 West Second South.
The Albany Saloon
599 West Second South
The Albany Saloon was located within the Albany Hotel which
was built on the location of the old Denver Beer Hall. The address was changed
from 579 West to 599 West but over time the address was changed back to 579
West. The Saloon was also known as
Hegney’s Saloon as he became the owner of the Albany.
The Saloon could be entered through swinging doors from
Second South at 599 West or from stairs from the upper floor of the Hotel. The
popular saloon had it share of violent incidents.
The Brutal Beating of Charles Crommelin
As with any
transportation hub, that has frequent travelers coming and going, the old Rio
Grande Train Depot on Sixth West brought people from all across the country.
Many of these travelers stayed at the James Hegney’s Albany Hotel that was
conveniently located across the street, especially if their stay required
overnight accommodations. The hotel also contained a café and saloon for the
hungry and thirsty.
In the summer of 1894, James
Hegney’s brother Joe Hegney was bartending in the Albany Hotel’s Saloon when Salt
Lake newspapers carried accounts of a beaten and stabbing that occurred in the bar
between a “traveling man” named Charles R Crommelin and a local coal hauling
teamster by the name of Albert “Neil” Love and Love’s friends.
The strange encounter
between the 40-year-old sales man
traveling from Omaha, Nebraska, and the 22-year-old
teamster, who would have been strangers to each other, occurred shortly after
midnight on June 30th. That the event occurred in June of 1894, may
have contributed to a heightened tension between local men and outsiders due to
so many men out of work.
The economic depression,
caused by the Panic of 1893, brought an influx of many displaced and unemployed
men coming to Salt Lake City to join General Carter’s failed “Industrial Army” movement.
The assault on Crommelin
by Neil Love and other local men seemed to have been for no apparent reason
except for a quarrel over something either Love or Crommelin had said to one
another. However, the brutality of the beating given in Jim Hegney’s saloon
raises suspicions that there was more to
the incident than what was printed in the newspapers of the time.
Nevertheless, it is only conjecture that
this attack may have been anything but a bashing of an “intoxicated man”; as
that any suggestion otherwise would have
been not fit to print in papers of the time.
The Herald newspaper
reported, “It seems that at 12:10 Charles Cromelion, formerly of Omaha, was in
the place and was considerably under the influence.” Crommelin claimed that he
was just sitting at a table in the saloon, “discussing the daily paper”, when
Love and his friends entered and “engaged him in a quarrel.” Accounts from
witnesses stated that Crommelin was quite drunk at the time.
At some point Love and
the other men began to brutally beat Crommelin.
“The facts appear to be that Love said something which displeased
Cromelin and in the heat of a drunken passion, Love punched Crommelin in the
face and closed his eyes up.”
At some point during the
fight, Crommelin stabbed Love in the abdomen, having “ thrust the large blade
of his pocket-knife clear to the hilt in Love’s stomach.” After making the initial “lunge with the
knife, Crommelin tried to stab Love again, but bartender Joe Hegney came
between the men and prevented Cromelion from doing further harm. For his
efforts, the bartender was slashed on the arm “while wrestling the deadly
weapon from Cromelin.”
A police wagon was
called and Crommelin was arrested for the stabbing of Love and taken to the
police station where he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. However,
it was clearly evident that Crommelin had suffered a brutal beating. He “looked
as though he had been worsted in a prize fight.
The assault on the
middle-aged man was so severe by Love and the others, it was called “murderous”
as that Crommelin’s body “was black and blue and his face yet in a shocking
condition.” One reporter wrote of Crommelin’s condition stating, “His face
presents a terrible aspect being greatly bruised and discolored.”
At the police station
Crommelin was still quite drunk but managed to answer the questions “propounded
by the desk sergeant.” He said he was a ‘traveling man’ by occupation and he
had represented the Keeley Cure Company in Omaha where he had worked for three
years. The Keeley Cure Company was a nationally
recognized program to remedy alcohol addiction.
Describing the assault
to the police, Crommelin claimed, “he was simply sitting in the room when Love
and some others assaulted him and asserts that he only used the knife in self
defense. His face is badly bruised showing he had been roughly handled.”
On the night of the
stabbing, a physician was called to attend the wounded Neil Love at the Saloon.
His condition was thought at first to be fatal especially if as the doctor stated, “internal hemorrhage
sets in.” Love, who lived nearby the saloon, was taken to his residence at 537
West on Second South.
The local newspapers
initially were sympathetic towards Love, who was a local young married Mormon
with a pregnant wife and an infant
daughter, compared to Crommelin, who was seen as an outsider and a single, middle-aged
man.
Love was born in Utah
territory although his parents were Scottish Mormon emigrants, however.
Even though Crommelin’s
condition required medical attention, he languished in the city jail over the
weekend until Monday July 2nd.
Eventually news came to light
that Neil Love would survive his wound. On Monday July 2, the Salt Lake Herald
reported, “Contrary to expectations the condition of Neil Love, the man who
received such a frightful wound in the bowel at the hands of Charles Cromelin
on Saturday morning, was considerably improved yesterday and the attending
physicians are now of the opinion that he will fully recover although the
recovery will be slow on the account of the nature of the cut.”
While Love was
recovering, Charles Crommelin’s arraignment in Police court was held on July 2.
Charles Zane was his defense attorney
and soon a new account of the Saloon brawl emerged. The Salt Lake Tribune
reported the news that Zane claimed that Crommelin was the victim not Love.
The defense attorney
stated in court that “the prisoner’s part in the tragic affair had been grossly
exaggerated,” and that he was acting in self defense as proven by his “shocking
appearance.” Zane additionally claimed that Crommelin “had made the attack with
the knife only after Love and others had subjected him to a most terrible
thrashing.”
The Herald Court
Reporter commented on Crommelin’s appearance, “The fellow’s face and body bore
out the statement, ” and added
“Cromelin’s face presents a terrible spectacle being swollen, bruised,
and disfigured.”
Crommelin’s physical
appearance in court showed that it was evident that he had been viciously
beaten. A pair of attending physicians on behalf of Crommelin even argued that
he should be admitted to St. Mark’s Hospital, “at once.”
Dennis C. Eichnor, the prosecuting
attorney, exonerated Crommelin, who was at first accused by the police as being
the aggressor in the Saloon fray, after a witness to the viciousness attack was
found. An eye witness corroborated what Attorney
Zane had told the court. The witness indicated that the Crommelin was only
defending himself when “he stabbed at his assailants.” Due to this witness Crommelin was released on
his own recognizance so he could be taken to the hospital to be seen for his
injuries.
At the end of the week.
Crommelin was back in court on Friday July 6th.
It was noted by reporters that Crommelin still “was not in prime
condition for a beauty contest. His face yet badly discolored and his ribs sore
and his joints.”
At the July 6th
hearing, Prosecuting Attorney Eichnor told the Police Court Justice that the Neil
Love, the “prosecuting witness was still not in a condition to appear in court.
” On that information a continuance was ordered by the judge for July 11th.
Crommelin was released still
on his own recognizance, “in the absence of the complaining witness, ” and “retraced
his way to the hospital where he will remain until summoned for examination.”
On Wednesday 11 July
1894, the case against Charles Crommelin was finally dismissed as that Neil
Love, “who is now able to locomote”, failed to appear in court when Crommelin
was arraigned. At the request of the prosecution, the case against Crommelin
was dismissed.
The question is what
could have provoked a bunch of young men to attack this inebriated man so
viciously? It can only be surmised.
Charles R Crommelin 1854-1907
Clues to the identity of
who the man assaulted and arrested can be found in Salt Lake news stories,
which said he was a “traveling man” from Omaha, Nebraska, that he worked for
the Keeley Cure Company, and that he was born in Alabama. These clues helped
identify Charles R. Crommelin as a member of an extremely wealthy and
politically connected family from Montgomery Alabama. Both the 1860 and 1870
U.S. censuses indicated that Crommelin was born in 1854 which would have made
him child during the Civil War.
Charles Crommelin’s
father was a New York lawyer who had moved to Alabama in the 1820’s and amassed
a fortune having owned a large cotton plantation. The 1855 Alabama Census,
taken when Charles Crommelin was 1 year old, stated that his father, held 38
African Americans enslaved on his plantation. Crommelin’s father died when
Charles was only 2 years old. He was the youngest of all his siblings and was
probably excessively indulged by a widowed mother .
In the antebellum 1860
Census, Crommelin’s widow mother had $150,000 in real estate and $120,000 in
personal property, which were the slaves. After the war, the 1870 Census showed
his family still held their land which was worth $175,000 but their personal
property had decreased to $40,000. In
today’s economy however that amount of wealth would have made this family be
considered millionaires.
The 1870 Census also
showed that 16-year-old Charles’ mother had died by then, and he was living
with four older sisters and a 26 year old brother John G Crommelin, who would
later become mayor of Montgomery Alabama from 1891 to 1895. Many of his older siblings at home were single, even though their ages ranged from 30
to 18 years old. They also had seven African Americans servants included in the
household to attend to their needs.
Crommelin’s father’s
will had stated that his estate was to be divided equally among his children
when they reached the age of 21 years.
That would have been 1875 for Charles Crommelin. At this point he seemed to have
disappear from census records.
The 1880 Census showed
that Charles Crommelin siblings were still
living together in the same household in Alabama, and all were still
single, except for a widowed sister. Charles Crommelin is nowhere to be found,
probably intentionally. He would have been 26 years old.
The next record found
regarding the elusive Crommelin is actually in Salt Lake City, ten years after the 1880 Census was
taken. He must have been traveling
across country, as he had visited Salt Lake City, at least once before his
troubles with the law in Utah in 1894. The Salt Lake Herald on 1 October 1890
had posted notices for people who had messages left for them at the Western
Union Office and one was for Charles R. Crommelin. So, it appears that he was
no stranger to Utah.
The Keeley Cure
Company by which Crommelin told the
police he was employed, was a type
of program that dealt with “Alcohol and
Opium” addiction. The company was a
franchised out with operations widely dispersed throughout the upper Mid-West.
In 1892 a branch was even established in Salt Lake City. The Keeley Cure
Company was so lucrative making millions of dollars that others tried to
imitate it. The most successful at it was the “Castle Cure Company” based out
of Omaha Nebraska.
A thorough search of the
Polk directory for Omaha showed two listings for Charles Crommelin. In both
cases his surname is spelled slightly differently. In 1893 his names was listed
as Charles “Cromelin” and in 1894 as Charles R “Crommelin”. In some Salt Lake papers, he is even listed
as “Cromelion.” “Crommelin” was probably
the more accurate spelling of his name,
as he was from the extremely wealthy
Crommelin family of Montgomery
Alabama.
Only two men in Omaha,
Nebraska had similar surnames. They were Charles R. Crommelin and a John
Francis Cromelin, a prominent attorney at law. However, it appears that they
were only distantly related. John F Cromelin was from a Washington D.C. family
and Charles was from a wealthy Montgomery, Alabama family.
Both men, Charles R.,
and John F., are listed in the Omaha Polk Directory in 1893 and 1894 but not at
the same address. John evidently came to Omaha in 1892 at the age of 30 to
argue a case before the Nebraska Supreme Court. He remained in Omaha until in
1896 when he moved back to Washington DC where he died that year of the “grip”
which was an old fashion word for influenza. He was an unmarried man as was Charles.
The Castle Cure Company
Charles Crommelin is not
listed in the Omaha Polk directory until 1893 and then not after 1894. His
first residence was at 809 South 19th Street in Omaha and his occupation was
simply given as “real estate”. The following year he was residing at 402 North
16th Street which was also the address of the Castle Cure Company where he is
listed as an assistant Manager. It appears that he was working for Keeley
Cure’s rival and not for the Keeley Cure Company as he had informed the Salt
Lake City police.
The Castle Cure Company
had a dubious reputation according to Omaha police as it purposed to be a cure
for “Liquor, Morphine, and Tobacco habits.” Advertisements for the company were
widespread in newspapers in Nebraska and Kansas.
In
articles found in the Omaha Daily Bee and the Nebraska State Journal for 18
February 1893, they showed that the company was shady at best. “For a long time,
the police have known that the reputation of the Castle Cure concern at 16th
and Chicago Streets was not the best.”
The articles maintained
that whenever the police showed up to investigate complaints they found , “the
man in charge was always drunk.” The
police further claimed, “as a general
thing everyone connected with the institution spent most of his time drinking
whiskey which appeared to be as free as water to all that went there.” The
general manager was even said to have made the company’s headquarters “the
resort of lewd women and a number of men who drank up the whiskey intended for
patients.”
The fact that Crommelin
was associated with this company and that he was said to have been inebriated
at the Salt Lake Saloon suggests that he may have been an alcoholic.
Nothing further is known
about Charles R. Crommelin after this incidence, except for a probate
notice from 1898, which sought the heirs of his sister Jennie Crommelin.
The notice mentioned Charles R Crommelin as being a “resident of Indiana but
exact location unknown.”
The man in charge of the
probate was his brother John G.
Crommelin who had been the Mayor of Montgomery Alabama during the time Charles
was in the Salt Lake jail. In 1905 another
attempt to reach him regarding a probate matter listed him as a resident of
West Baden Springs, in Orange County, Indiana. The town was a health resort due
to its mineral springs.
Crommelin led a life
estranged from his Southern family and probably chose to remain absent and to
live a dissipated and inebriated life. He is not located in the 1900 federal
Census either, however there is a plot in the Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery,
Alabama for him that has no inscription written on the slab. Cemetery records
stated he died in 1907 although his birth year is wrong. He would have been 53
years old at the time of his death.
Albert “Neil” Love 1871-1941
Neil Love was born in 1871 in Salt Lake City to Scottish
Mormon Converts. He was raised in Salt Lake’s Sixth Ward which was between
Third South and Sixth South and from West Temple to the Jordan River.
At the time of the
stabbing, Love was working as a teamster and had a young 20-year-old wife Emma Maude
Love the daughter of Benjamin Rowland, who the newspaper said was “in a
delicate condition” as that she was six months pregnant. The couple had married
15 Dec 1892.
The Herald, being the
most sympathetic towards Love of all the newspaper accounts, stated, “He has a
wife and several children, and what makes the case even more pathetic is the
daily anticipated arrival of a little stranger.” Actually Neil Love had just
the one daughter who was born in June 1893, less than 6 months after his marriage to Maude
Rowland.
Neil Love’s wounds were
thought at first to be fatal, which garnered him considerable compassion by
reporters. The Herald journalist wrote “The indications now are that the charge
of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, booked against Charles
Crommelin, will be changed to the more serious one of murder. Neil Love the
victim of Crommelin’s murderous attack is very low and the attending physicians
are of the opinion that the wound in his bowels will prove fatal. It was a
clean cut two and a half inches deep on the left side directly in the vitals.”
After this incident and
he recovered, Love is not found in newspaper accounts any further. Perhaps this
event changed his behavior as he worked in the railroad yards as car repairman
and also as a watchman for the Salt Lake Water Works for the rest of his life.
Neil Love lived out the
remainder of his life on the west side of Salt Lake City where he died in 1941
at the age of 69 from a stroke. He was the father of 12 children, eleven who
were born after his near fatal encounter with Charles Crommelin in the Albany
Hotel on the corner of Sixth West and Second South.
The Butch Cassidy Incident
At 1 in the
morning on Thursday, 2 June 1898, a robbery took place at the Hegney’s Saloon
located in the Albany Hotel. Afterwards the Salt Lake Tribune received a letter
from a man claiming to be Butch Cassidy, the
notorious Utah outlaw, who said he was responsible for the crime.
A month and half
later, on July 14, 1898, the Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch Gang robbed the Southern Pacific passenger train
of nearly $26,000 in cash and jewelry near Humboldt, Nevada.
If indeed Butch
Cassidy and some of his gang held up the Saloon in the Albany Hotel, it would
have just been a meager amount, however the $150 would have been worth it while
planning another heist.
Over time, Butch
Cassidy’s band of robbers “held up trains and banks and stole mine payrolls in
the Rocky Mountain West, making off with a total of $200,000 (the equivalent of
$2.5 million today) between 1889 and the early 1900s.
An Account of the Robbery
Albany Saloon Bartender
John Williams was working the night shift alone
when three mask robbers entered and held him up. Williams “heard the
front door open and looked up to be confronted with the business end of six
shooters.” A “burly chap, his face covered to the eyes with a black
handkerchief’” yelled “Hold up your hands, damn you and be quick about it. ”
Williams obeyed as that a “revolver which always lays handy and beneath the
counter was six feet away.”
A second masked
man, also with a revolver, “leaped lightly over the gate which shuts off the
cigar stand and the bar at the front” while the burley chap “kept his gun aimed
at Williams head.” A third masked man stood at the Saloon’s Second South street
entrance and was “keeping a lookout up and down the street.”
The second robber
then “went through the bartender’s clothes taking there from his watch and $50
in cash”. Keeping Williams covered with their guns, the till was opened and
“all the cash something over $50” was taken.
After trying all
the other drawers and finding them locked, the leader of the band of robbers said to Williams, “Now you
stand right where you are and don’t breathe above a whisper for five minutes,”
as they attempted to leave the saloon.
However, “just
then, there came sounds of footsteps from upstairs where there are rooms.” The
robbers delayed their escape, “whispering a warning to Williams”, and waited
for the unsuspecting victim. When he entered the saloon, the astonished man was
“greeted with a curse” and a “Come in here and shut that door damn quick.” Dan
Harrigan, who lived in the Albany Hotel, was the astonished man.
The second robber
then “coolly went through his pocket,
obtaining about $40 in cash, every cent he possessed.” Harrigan was then
told to line up alongside Williams and “with a parting injunction not to move
for five minutes or they would rue it, they quietly slipped out the door.’’ The
men then ran down 5th West [today Sixth West] Street toward 3rd South, which
“indicated that they had gone.”
After the robbers
had absconded with their loot, Williams
quickly “ran around the bar to the telephone and called up the police station.”
Two police officers were on the scene in ten minutes and after they examined the
premises, the officers “thoroughly aroused the neighborhood, at an early hour”
but no clue to where the robbers had gone was discovered. . The thieves got away with at least $140 in
cash and Williams’ silver watch.
Williams was so
rattled and unnerved by the holdup “that he was not able to give a very
accurate description, beyond saying that they wore dark suit and slouch hats
and that the two who came into the saloon were of medium height but quite heavy
and smooth shaven.”
The Letter to the Salt Lake Tribune
Within days of the
robbery at the Albany Saloon, the Salt Lake Tribune received a letter
supposedly from “Butch Cassidy” who wrote to correct some misinformation
concerning rumors of his death in Emory County, Utah. At the end of May, 1898, a posse had killed
an outlaw that some identified as Butch Cassidy although that claim was
disputed by others.
The Salt Lake Tribune carried the
following news article from the “Emory County Pioneer” dated 30 May 1898 with
the headline “It was Cassidy.” “Was it
Cassidy or was it not Cassidy? That is the question. Since the burial of two
outlaws at Price last week the one who claimed to be Cassidy has been variously
declared to be Tom Gillis, Parker, Bob Culp, Red Bob, John Herring, Tom
McCarty, and perhaps others. The question naturally arised, Who is Butch
Cassidy and what is his rightful name? He seems to be as mysterious as the
bogie man from childhood terror. Emory County Pioneer.”
The Tribune, later
on 5 June 1898, printed what they called the “Mixed-up Epistle” signed by
“Butch Casity”. The Tribune remarked that the letter “purports to have been
written at Robbers “Rust” [Roost] but bear Salt Lake postmark.” The Tribune
also added that the writer of the letter took “credit for the “Hegney’s saloon
robbery a few evenings ago”.
The Tribune article
stated, “This ‘Butch’ says in his communication, which is an almost
unintelligible conglomeration of bad grammar and misspelled words, that the
report of his death is a gross and unpardonable exaggeration.”
The 5 June 1898 Letter to the Salt Lake Tribune:
"LETTER OF
BUTCH CASITY SAYS HE IS ALIVE AND MAKES OTHER REMARKS-Mixed- up Epistle
Purported to Come from Robbers’ Roost but Marked in Salt Lake: The Tribune is
in receipt of a letter from an individual who signs himself “Butch Casity” This
“Butch” says in his communication, which is an almost unintelligible conglomeration
of bad grammar and misspelled words, that the report of his death is a gross
and unpardonable exaggeration.”
“The letter
purports to have been written at Robbers “Rust” but bear Salt Lake postmark.
“Butch” also takes the credit of Hegney’s saloon robbery a few evenings ago.”
“He further says
“the man he gave Walker away will regret the day he gave Walker away.” Further
on Butch says “they have run us to the wall without a cause or provocation. You
make us “robers” [robbers] by calling us “robers.” “Joe Bush,” the writer
continues, “is a dandy I don’t think. Adam Pawal thought he was wise when he
went to Green River and when he got his hair parted with a bullet and all you
detectives please be ware of cowboys and robers feans [fiends] ho [who] would
kill you and rob you.” Complaint is also made that Curtis was sent over the
road for eating a ded [dead]crow.”
It was never
definitely proven whether the letter was written by the outlaw Butch Cassidy or
not, however it is known that he liked publicity and the notoriety that came
with it.
Daniel H. Harrigan
[1856-1910]
Daniel Harrigan, the
unfortunate victim who lost all his money, was about 38 years old at the time
of the robbery. He was also a close friend of the Hegney family and was a
well-known figure about the Rio Grande District as that he was a railroad man
for much of his life. “Those who know him speak in the highest terms of
him.” When not working on the railroad, he mostly stayed at the Hegney’s Albany
Hotel.
His main residence when
not in Salt Lake seemed to have been in Mt. Pleasant, in San Pete County, Utah.
A newspaper reporting on his accident in 1910 stated that Harrigan was “a
native of Maryland having come west about a quarter of a century ago.
Daniel Harrigan was born in Baltimore Maryland
the son of Peter and Julia Harrigan Irish Emigrants. His father was arrested
for assaulting his mother in 1864, and he died before 1872 when his mother was
granted letters if administration over his estate. She was the proprietor of a
grocery store in the 1880 federal census and Daniel was enumerated in her
household as a 24-year-old laborer.
He came out west in 1885
and in 1892, while living in Gem, Idaho, a mining town founded in 1886.
Harrigan wrote a letter published in newspapers about the conditions there. He
stated “that times there are very dull owing to the shutting-down of the mines,
that many poor people must suffer in consequence, and no one knows when work
will be resumed. Quite a number of numbers have left for either Montana, Wood
River, or Utah, and many others must likewise.”
Harrigan was said to
have been a bridge builder by trade, but for many years had worked as a section
foreman for the Rio Grande Western which had him working at work camp
sites throughout Utah and even Nevada.
He must have moved to
Utah permanently after during the Panic of 1893 as in 1896 he was mentioned as
residing in Richfield, Utah as a foreman of a stock yard crew, working for the
Rio Grande Western.
Harrigan was a member of
Mt Pleasant Masons, having joined the Damascus lodge No. 10 of Freemasonry when
it was organized by Alexander G. Sutherland, who was a lawyer and judge was a
friend of Harrigan’s who was at his side when he died.
Harrigan probably lived
much of his time in the town of Mt. Pleasant in San Pete County, after the Rio
Grande Western Railway came to that town in 1890. By 1900, Mt. Pleasant had
grown to nearly 3,000 persons, the largest city in Sanpete County to that time,
and the city had earned one of its nicknames, "Hub City."
When Harrigan would come
to Salt Lake he “made his home” with the Hegney’s, staying at the Albany Hotel.
He also became a long-time friend of W. Frank Conrad, Jim Hegney’s son- in-law
who owned the Kozy Saloon located on Hegney’s property at the corner of Sixth
[Seventh] West and Second South in Block 47.
In 1907 the Spanish Fork
Press mentioned Harrigan while criticizing the hiring practices of the Rio
Grande Western. “Carl Crotegut has been dismissed from the Rio Grande Western
as a section foreman at Payson to make room for a man named Dan Harrigan. Carl
has put in about twenty years in the track department of the R.G.W. and we believed
he is well qualified to look after a piece of track, but it seems to be a very
unfortunate thing for Carl that he is not Irish.”
On Wednesday 17 April
1910, Dan Harrigan arrived in Salt Lake City from Caliente, Nevada where
he had been working as a section foreman. According to Frank Conrad, proprietor
of the Kozy saloon, and “an old friend of Harrigan.” Harrigan “had a small
amount of money in his possession when he arrived here and after purchasing new
suit of clothes, he gave $5 and his watch to Mr. Conrad to keep for him while
he was in the city.”
“After paying a
few bills and purchasing a suit of clothes,” with the rest of the money, “only
a few dollars, he “preceded to buy liquor and
he began drinking
heavily.”
Men who knew him said
that Harrigan was “a hardworking man and not an habitual drinker. Occasionally
he would go on a short spree and would then go back to his work and remain
there for months at a time.”
Harrigan according to
witnesses on Thursday night [April 18] “was in the Kosy bar at Sixth [Seventh]
West and Second South. When some of his friends saw that he was getting quite
drunk they tried to get him to go to a room, but he refused.”
Frank Conrad said
“Harrigan had his fill of drink,” and “finally, he agreed to go to a shack near
the saloon, where plumbers and carpenters working on a new saloon building next
door had left their tools and a five-gallon can of gasoline.
The shack was in the
rear of the temporary quarters of the Kozy bar. While Harrigan was getting into
the blankets it is supposed that he tipped over the can of gasoline oil. In
doing so he upset the “five-gallon can of gasoline and the fluid ran over his
left side.”
“The man was in such a
condition from liquor that he did not realize his danger and remained there
all-night breathing in deadly fumes.”
The effect of breathing
the gasoline fumes into his lungs and the liquor which he had already drunk
would have killed him in a short time if he had not been found the next day.
Harrigan was discovered
in the “store house” early Friday morning April 19, at 7 o’clock by the
bartender, who “immediately notified” Frank Conrad. Harrigan’s face was blue
and his “tongue protruding. Believing him already dead Conrad telephoned for
the police.
When patrolman Colton
and Desk Sergeant Spears arrived at the saloon with Sergeant Riley M
Beckstead in a patrol wagon, “they found Harrigan outside the tool house, where
he had been carried by the saloon men in an effort to revive him in the fresh
air.” Harrigan “was unconscious and his face was almost black. The man’s
left breast, arm, and neck were blistered from the “fiery stuff and his lungs
are also badly burned from breathing the fumes.”
“The man’s clothing was
saturated with gasoline and the left side of his body was burned from the oil
in a number of places, where the skin had peeled off.”
Officer Beckstead
finding Harrigan still breathing he called for Police Surgeon Frank B Steele to
meet the patrol wagon at the emergency hospital located at the police
headquarters.
“A piece of chewing
tobacco was all they could find in the man’s clothing and as he was fairly well
dressed the police at first thought he had met foul play. Sergeant Beckstead
went the Kozy bar to investigate the case and learned that there was absolutely
no foundation for such a theory.”
Harrigan “was hurried to
the emergency hospital and the police surgeon Dr. Steele was summoned, who
“administered strychnine in large doses and applied the electric battery. After
he had been worked on for some time, Harrigan showed slight signs of recovery.”
Dr. Steele stated that
“the man’s lungs had become seriously affect for the gasoline and that if he
recovered from the poisoning, he would undoubtedly have pneumonia” There was
“little hope is held out for his recovery,” as his lungs were “ clogged up,
making breathing almost impossible.”
Harrigan had only been
at the emergency hospital a short time when Judge Alexander Sutherland, a
“fellow mason” came to visit him.
“That the two men had
been close friends was evidenced when Judge Sutherland entered the room and
gazed upon the dying man. His voice husky with emotion, Judge Sutherland went
to the cot where Harrigan lay and taking the man affectionately by the hand
said: “Dan, Dan, old boy, speak to me. Don’t you know me , brother? You must
get well; you will get well. What’s the trouble Dan?”
“The silver haired
brother Mason could say no more, for tears blinded his eyes and his voice
choked with sobs. He left the room to advise other lodge men that a “brother
was dying”. Several masons including Judge C. H. Diehl called at the emergency
hospital immediately after the news had been telephoned to the Masonic Temple
and they had Harrigan removed to St. Mark’s hospital, about noon, where he is
being carefully watched by physicians.
They hurried to the
emergency hospital to see what they could do for him and “communicated with
friends at Mt. Pleasant.” Arrangements were also made to “place the
unfortunate man in a private ward at St. Mark’s hospital.”
Little was known of
“this gaseous formation in medical circles and efforts to revive Harrigan by
the application of antidotes, such as used in common asphyxiation, failed.
Without regaining consciousness, Dan H. Harrigan died the morning of May 1
morning at St Mark’s hospital.
Harrigan’s death certificate stated he
died from pneumonia complicated by “Delirium Tremors and burns.” The informant
on his death certificate was listed as the Damascus Lodge #10 of Mount
Pleasant, Utah. They provided little information about the man except he was
about 50 years old so evidently, he had no family in Utah to fill in the
details. A newspaper
article however stated he was survived
by “two brothers and a sister in Baltimore Maryland.” His body was buried in
Mount Pleasant, Utah by the Masons.
John Williams the Bartender
Little is known of
John Williams. However, the 1898 Polk Directory of Salt Lake City listed him
still as a bartender and boarding at the Albany Hotel. The 1897 directory
listed him as a laborer but also as boarding at Albany Hotel.
The experience of
being robbed must not have frightened him that much, as the 1899 directory
showed that he was still a bartender and living at the hotel. Nevertheless by
1900 he was listed as a laborer again boarding at “595 West Second South” which
was the address of the Albany Hotel. He was however not a resident of the hotel
when the 1900 Census was taken and his whereabouts was unknown.
Another Robbery 1900
In 1900, John Williams was mentioned again as bartender
when newspapers reported again of the “Albany Saloon Robbed,” and ““Albany
Saloon Held up This Morning.”
“About 3 o’clock this morning [February 28] a couple of men
walked into the Albany Saloon on Fifth [Sixth] West and Second South, their
faces covered with masks and their hands full of pyrotechnical implements and
blandly requested those in the saloon to raise their hands aloft.
The request was complied with and one of the men covered
Bartender J. Williams with his revolver while the other removed from the till
$31.60 in cash. The men were after the cash only. They even ignored the
bartenders and the liquor.
Informing the ‘gentlemen’ in the saloon that they had
better be quiet. The bold hold-ups went north on Fifth West. Bartender Williams
at once telephoned to police headquarters and Officer Roberts quickly
responded. The bartender says both the men were young and of medium size and
were well dressed. The same saloon was held up about a year ago and $100
taken.”
“The Albany bar, on the corner of Fifth West and Second
South, was held up by two masked men at 2:45 this morning and $31 in cash taken
from the till. Nothing else was disturbed, however, J. Williams the bartender,
and two other men were playing cards in the room at the time.”
“The holdups came in at a side door, and one covered the
crowd while the other went through the money drawer. The police were telephoned,
and Officer Barlow went down with Patrolman Cannon and the wagon.”
“A fairly good description of the men were given the
officers, but a search in the neighboring Rio Grande yards failed to reveal any
clue of them.”
”This is the second time in one year that the bar has
been held up, the robbers getting away with over $100 last time. Mr. Hegney,
the proprietor, said last night that he thought it was about time the city was
furnishing police protection to that thug infested district.”
Samuel George Read and The London News Depot & Bookstore
A business called the
London News Depot and Bookstore was owned by Samuel George Read [1807-1893]
who was referred to
as “the well-known news dealer.”
The bookstore abutted on
the north side of the Liday Restaurant and was south of the Keenan’s Denver
House. The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showed it was a one-story wooden
structure consisting of three shops that fronted Fifth [Sixth] West, with two
small rooms in behind it. The 1898 map showed the structure was slightly
enlarged in the back and the property line in the rear reached a “Private
Drive” that encircled the Denver Court subdivision.
Samuel Read was born in
England and as a young man, was said to have participated in the in the East
India Service’s Bengal Army. A daughter also said he was a lieutenant in
the British Army and fought the Crimea War [1853-1856] and knew Florence
Nightingale. He was married to a woman named Elizabeth Quilley by 1836 however
and had six children born between 1839 and 1848.
After their conversion
to the Mormon Church, Samuel Read and his family immigrated to the United
States in May 1856. They boarded the ship the Horizon which carried most of the
people who made up the Martin handcart Company formed in July 1856 in Iowa
City, Iowa.
The Martin Handcart Company
Read’s family joined the
ill-fated Martin Handcart Company, however when the handcart company arrived at
an area called “Keg Creek, a few miles east of Council Bluffs, Iowa, the Read
family discovered that their young eight-year-old son Walter was missing from
the group.
Samuel Read and his wife
decided that he and their eldest son Samuel Milford Read would go back over the
trail to find the missing boy. His wife and two daughters would nevertheless
continue on with the handcart company.
The parents “divided the
family money to cover expenses of their individual needs” and with the
separation of the family, 51-year-old Elizabeth Read “positioned herself at the
shafts in front of the handcart” with at the rear her two daughters, ages 16
and 11 years and “together they pushed and pulled their handcart westward
across the plains.”
It took Samuel Read and
his son three months to eventually locate the kidnapped child. the boy had been
lured away from the handcart company by two men who had “promised Walter a
pony, lots of money and some land if he would go with them.” After he was
abandoned by his kidnappers, Walter Read during his three-month stay in Iowa
away from his family, had been taken care of by several families until
rescued.
As it was now too late
in the season for the Samuel Read and his sons to rejoin his wife and
daughters, they remained in Iowa as they “needed to regain their health as well
as replenish their savings.”
While Samuel Read stayed
behind in Iowa with his two sons, his wife and daughters were caught in a
Wyoming snowstorm in late October. The Martin Handcart company was
reduced to a daily flour ration of eight ounces per adult and four ounces per
child.
On the last day of
October, the Martin Handcart Company met men from Salt Lake City with rescue
wagons which brought the survivors into Salt Lake City the last day of
November.
Return to Iowa
While his wife and
family was leaving in Utah, Samuel Read did not leave Iowa approximately for two
years afterwards. Elizabeth Read later returned to Iowa with one of her daughters,
“to determine for herself the condition of her husband and sons.”
The two years separation
must have ended their marriage as that in 1859 Samuel Read “parted company with
his wife and family and arrived alone in the Salt Lake Valley.” Elizabeth Read
remained behind in Iowa with her daughter and sons, Samuel M and Walter P. Read,
however all the children were living within separate households away from their
mother.
In 1861, the Read family
who were left behind in Iowa joined with the Captain Ansil Perse Harmon Company
for a safe trip to the Salt Lake valley, where Elizabeth Read married a man
named John Rodwell and moved to Nephi, Utah.
Samuel Read in Utah
Samuel Read adopted the
name middle name `George' after he arrived in the Salt Lake valley to
distinguish himself from his son, Samuel Milford Read. He brought with
him to Utah British newspapers and other reading material and boarded with a
widow named Laura Gibbs whom he married in 1860.
Samuel G. Read, in 1863
was a bookkeeper for the Deseret News until he established business for himself
under the name of the “London News Dealer” located by the old Salt Lake Theater
on State Street.
His second wife, Laura
Gibbs, left him in 1870 and moved to Ogden, Utah and Samuel G Read was married
for the third time in 1871 to a Mrs. Martha Munroe Bates Moore [1815-1902]
The 1880 federal census
showed that Samuel G. Read was enumerated on First South Street in the
Thirteenth Ward living with his third wife Martha Read. He was listed as a “news
dealer.”
Samuel Read’s daughter
wrote of her father, “His clothes were always the best. He smoothly waxed and
neatly clipped his Vandyke beard. Samuel's black eyes were always dancing at a
joke or a happy story.”
The News Stand on Fifth [Sixth] West
In December 1882, Edmund
Butterworth leased a portion of his Lot
Three in City Block 63 for $10 a month to Samuel G Read who opened a newspaper
and magazine shop across from the Denver & Rio Grande Freight and Passenger
depot. The following year Read applied for a license to run a small news store.
The merchant fees were waived by the city “on account of age, poverty, and
feebleness.” At the time he was 76 years old.
The September 1885 fire that
destroyed the Denver House, north Samuel Read’s news stand, “only slightly
scorched” his business which “only “$100 in damages.
In January 1886, Samuel Read
lost his balance while waiting for a streetcar at the Palace Hotel, at the
corner of Third South and Main Street. He fell over a short railing and was
severely injured. Read was taken to his “home near the Denver & Rio Grande
depot” where Dr. J. M. Bennett examined him. Dr. Bennett had been hired
in 1885 by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to be a “division surgeon” for
the district.
Read had two severe
gashed on his head and broken a thigh born which left him “badly
crippled. He sued the owners of the Palace Hotel and the city for damages
and received $750 from the owner of the Palace Hotel and $500 from the city for
his broken leg.
His 3rd wife
Martha Read began to take in boarders by 1890 when George Mudett, who was a
miner, was boarding at this address.
Death of Samuel G. Read
Samuel G. Read
died December 1893 at the age of 86 at his residence at 249 South Fifth
[Sixth] West where he was still operating his “bookstore business”.
A news article stated “Samuel G. Read, an old and highly
esteemed resident of Salt Lake, died yesterday morning from an attack of the grip
[influenza]. Mr. Read was a native of London and was born in 1807. When a
young man he entered the service of the east Indian Company and served with
distinction being made a lieutenant in the Bengal marines.”
“ He came to the United
States in 1856 and after residing in Iowa three years came to Salt Lake and
opened the London News Depot near the theater. He was one of the most
remarkable swordsmen in America, and up to a few years ago frequently displayed
his ability with the broadsword.”
“ The deceased possessed
many traits of character which endeared him to a wide circle of acquaintances
and the news of the veteran’s demise will be learned with regret.”
“ He leaves a wife,
three daughters, and two sons, one of them [Walter P Read] being
Superintendent of the City Railway company. Funeral services will be held from
the Fifteenth Ward meeting house tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.”
Another article
contained the following information, “The funeral services over the remains of
Samuel George Read were held in the Fifteenth ward assembly hall at 11:30
yesterday. Bishop Elias Morris presiding. In the congregation were many of
these gray-haired veterans who, like the man for whom they had assembled to pay
their last respects, had passed through the may trials and privations suffered
by these who emigrated to Utah at the time of the hand cart companies.”
“Appropriate remarks
were made by elders William Thorn, George Goddard, George Reynolds, William
Spicer, Robert T. Burton, John Y. Smith, and William Binder, all of whom
had been well acquainted with the deceased and gave expression to many words of
tribute to his character, integrity, honesty and faithfulness.”
“Consolatory expressions
were also uttered for the comfort and encouragement of the relatives and friends
of the departed, and the fact of his having lived to a good old age and
enduring faithful to the end was properly mentioned as a source of pleasure in
the knowledge that Mr. Read had now earned that “crown of glory” laid up for
the faithful.”
The Read family buried
both Samuel G. Read and his first wife Elizabeth Georgina Rodwell in the Salt
Lake City Cemetery in the same family plot. “There are four head stones in a
row. From north to south are Elizabeth Georgina Quilley Read Rodwell, John Rodwell,
Martha Monroe Bates Read, and Samuel George Read. It was their daughter
Alicia's desire to have her mother and father together. Out of respect for
their current spouses, these people are buried there too.”
Ironically, the Salt
Lake Herald Republican printed news from the probate court that the estates of
“Samuel Liday” who murdered his son and committed suicide and “Samuel George
Read’s” hearings were set for petitions for letters of administration in
December 27.
Mrs. Martha Read
Martha Read as a widow in
1894 paid a sale tax of $10 on improvements made on Lots 2 and 3. The 1894 city
directory stated that the widow continued to reside at this address where she
also operated a grocery store and rented out rooms until her death in 1902.
In 1896 a renter
named Richard Burdett lived at the address. He gave his occupation as a “Boot
and Shoe” maker. He was lodging with 80-year-old Mrs. Martha Read who was
operating a Grocery Store and rented out rooms.
The 1900 federal census
enumerated Martha Read as an 84-year Englishwoman operating a grocery. Her
20-year-old grandson George Read, whose occupation was “elevator boy”, lived
with her. The divorced daughter of Mormon pioneer resident of Block 64 George W
Boyd, Elizabeth “Libby” Glenn and her son Earl Glenn also boarded at this
address. No occupation was given for her.
Ann Johnson Liday’s Boarding House & Railroad
Men’s Café
253 South Fifth [Sixth]
west
The 1889 and 1898
Sanborn Fire Insurance maps listed this address as containing a one-story
wooden structure of three rooms with a restaurant in the front facing Fifth
[Sixth] West. Behind it was an adobe filled room and kitchen behind it.
It had been 15 feet north of the dwelling at 257 South. This place was called
the Liday Boarding House and Railroad Men’s Café owned by Mrs. Ann Liday.
Ann Johnson Liday [1857-1925]
was a native of Minnesota and a businesswoman who had married Samuel Liday by
whom she had two sons, John A Liday [1876-1966] and Ralph Liday [1886-1891].
In 1879 her
husband Samuel Liday had joined the United States infantry and served until
1884 when he was discharged at Fort Laramie, Wyoming at the expiration of his
term of enlistment. He must have found work on the railroad as that his son
Ralph was born in Wyoming.
The Liday family had
moved to Utah by 1890 when a help wanted advertisement sought a “Good Cook;
Woman Preferred, at Mrs. Liday.” In August 1890, a civil suit against
Mrs. Anna Liday came up for trial when Emma Lake sued her for $9 that “Miss
Lake” claimed Liday owed her for wages.
A newspaper article
contained information on the dispute. “Mrs. Liday keeps a boarding house near
the Rio Grande Western Depot and Miss Lake claimed that she owed her $9 for
services rendered. Mrs. Liday was in a bad humor throughout the trial and when
Commissioner Greenman gave judgment against her, turned to her husband, and
said, ‘Come on; this court is fixed!” “That remark will cost you just $25
said the court, “You are in contempt.”
“Mrs. Liday retired to
the Marshal’s office for a short time. When she returned to the court room, she
was very penitent and apologized. Thereupon the commissioner remitted the fine
and sent the woman away rejoicing.”
Murder and Suicide
A tragedy occurred on 6
June 1891 when Samuel Liday, the now estranged husband of Anna Liday, committed
“Murder Most Foul.” He killed his child and then himself after he had wounded a
lodger named John Kirby. One newspaper even called it “A Deed Unequaled in the
Criminal Annals of Salt Lake City. ”
“ YET ANOTHER MURDER A
Salt Lake Man Kills His Child and Himself After Dangerously Wounding a Man When
He, in a Fit of Insane Jealousy, Considered to be too Intimate with His Legal
Spouse.”
“Some months ago, Mrs.
Samuel Liday, whose husband was a railroad man, opened a small eating house
known as the Railroad Men’s restaurant near the Rio Grande Western and by
thrift and industry succeeded in building up a good business. Her husband who
seems to have been somewhat dissolute, did nothing to support his wife, and in
fact soon became a burden to her.
“He soon lost his
position and finally became so abusive that his wife told him plainly that
unless he reformed, she would live with him no longer, and in February last he
went away.”
“Nothing was heard of
him until last Sunday night [May 31] when he appeared at the back door of
the restaurant and asked to see his wife. She did not greet him very cordially
but allowed him to stay at the place and sleep with their five-year-old
boy.”
“After his return to the
city last Sunday Liday showed no desire to retain the affection and confidence
of his wife, going so far as to deed to her an interest in some building lots he
owned. It was something more than this that the wife wanted, however, and when
it became evident that he did not intend to lead a respectable life and
give up his evil associations, she repelled his efforts for a reconciliation
and gave him to understand she expected to obtain a divorce from him.”
“On Monday [June 1]
[Samuel] Liday got drunk and going down to the restaurant created something of
a disturbance but when threatened with arrest he quieted down. Things ran in
this way for several days, Liday continuing to drink, but creating no further
disturbance.”
“A few days ago, however
he stated to Otto Johnson, Mrs. Liday’s brother, that John Kirby, the night
yard master at the Rio Grande Western Depot, who boarded at the Restaurant, was
the cause of all the trouble.”
“Seeing that her husband
had no intention of mending his evil ways, Mrs. Liday told him on Friday night
[June 5] that he must leave the next morning.”
“Mrs. Liday got up at
5’olck yesterday morning [June 6] and was soon engaged in getting breakfast for
her patrons. Her husband arose between 6 and 7 o’clock and dressed himself and
walked into the dining room where several boarders, among them Mr. Kirby, were
seated for breakfast.”
“At the hour mentioned,
breakfast was in progress at the Railroad Men's restaurant down on the margin
of the Rio Grande Western depot. Among others seated at the table was Jack
Kirby, night yardmaster of the Rio Grande, a domestic, and Mrs. Sam Liday, the
latter proprietor of the restaurant. A moment later Sam Liday himself entered.”
“The cook was filling
Liday's orders while he sat silently eyeing the yardmaster, who now and then
addressed a remark to the woman.”
“Suddenly Liday rose to
his feet and leveling a Colt 44 at Kirby, began to empty its chambers. Kirby
fell from his chair with a groan, while the woman tore away from the
blood-curdling scene.”
“Mrs. Liday was in the
kitchen with the hired girl, and just going into her little boy’s bedroom when
the report of a pistol shot in the dining room startled her and she heard Mr.
Kirby cry out: “I am shot.”
“Liday advanced in the
direction of the kitchen, while the panic-stricken women fled towards the
sidewalk.”
“The frightened woman
rushed out the back door and the act doubtless saved her life for the next
instant her husband, with a smoking pistol in his hand, appeared at the
threshold.”
“He paused for a moment
and walked into the room where his boy was lying in bed. Walking deliberately
into the bedchamber between the kitchen and diner, his eyes fell on the form of
his 5-year-old boy. The heartless sire bent over him a moment, and then,
placing the revolver over the breast of his boy, dispatched a second bullet,
that pierced the body and buried itself in the folds of the bed clothing.”
“Having committed this
foul and inhuman deed, the murderer then turned the pistol upon himself and
fired. Liday turned the weapon on his own bosom and as the crack of a third
shot was heard, his own form reeled and sank, limp and dead upon the bed
alongside the motionless form of his dead boy.”
“The ball entered near
the center of the breast on a line with the nipple and ranging to the left came
out at the right side and entered his arm, shattering the bone.”
“The lull which followed
told that the storm was over, and a rush was made for the bedroom and the sight
which met the gaze of those who entered was one which they will never forget.
The innocent child and the fiendish father were both stretched upon the bed
cold in death.”
“Mrs. Liday was
completely overcome by the horror of the affair and all efforts to sooth her
were unavailing.”
“Officers Schilling and
[Benedict] Siegfus were on the scene almost instantly and finding that there
was no one upon whom the law had any claim directed their attention to Mr.
Kirby who had fallen to the floor and was evidently sinking fast. Dr. Pinkerton
was summoned, and a hasty examination showed the bullet had entered the side
and penetrated out of the lungs.”
“The surgeon
expressed but little hope of pulling Kirby through, and it looked as if every
struggle for breath would snap the subtle thread and relieve him of his agony.”
“After the injured man
had been made comfortable as possible, he was taken to St. Mary’s hospital and
received further attention at the hands of the Physicians. At first it was
thought that the wound was necessary fatal, but inquiry at the hospital last
evening elicited the information that his condition was somewhat improved and
there was a possibility of his recovery.”
“The bodies of Liday and
his son were removed shortly after the tragedy to Evan’s Undertaking
establishment where they were viewed by a large crowd. Liday's wounds were in
the breast, as stated , and even in death a sinister scowl seemed to rest upon
his features. In striking contrast to this was the face of the child, who
looked as though he was asleep.”
“The cause of the
dreadful tragedy is obscured in dense mystery. It is all attributed to Liday's
flaming jealousy whether it lacked foundation or not.”
“Liday was a man about
40 years of age, of medium size, and was slightly bald. He was a good mechanic
and at one time had a good position at the Rio Grande Western.”
“Kirby is about
the same age and is spoken of as a sober and industrious man. From the facts
stated above it is reasonably clear that jealousy was the cause of the tragedy
and that Liday suspected a liaison between his wife and Kirby. From all that
could be learned however this suspicion was groundless. Mr. Johnson, the
woman’s brother, has lived with her since she came here, and he asserts
positively that there was no real cause for such suspicion.”
“Mrs. Liday expressed
herself freely to the representative of the press, who called upon her
yesterday, and when asked for a statement of the matter she said, “I was
married to Mr. Liday in Wisconsin seven years ago and over a year ago he came
to Salt Lake. I followed him three months later an opened the restaurant and
worked hard to support myself and child.”
“He became very abusive
after a while and when my brother Otto Johnson came out here, he insisted that
I should get a divorce. I agreed to do so on his promise to stay with me and
protect me.”
“My husband went away in
February last and did not known my intentions at the time I formed it. He came
back on Sunday evening last [May 31] and going to the back door, told the
hired boy that he wished to see me.”
“I entered the room in a
few minutes and found him with our little Ralph in his arms.”
“At the thought of her
child, who is cold in death, the mother broke down, and it was sometime before
she could compose herself sufficiently to complete her statement. “I could not
go to the man. She continued. I had no love for him. I did offer to make a bed
for him with the boy, however and he slept with him.”
“He came home drunk on
Monday and although he was noisy, I never thought of his shooting anybody. Last
Night [June 5] I told him he must arrange to leave the place in the morning. I
got up early this morning [June 6] and between 6 and 7 o’clock. John Kirby came
in the dining room for breakfast. I knew Mr. Kirby before he came to Utah. He
always conducted himself as a gentleman, but there was never anything more than
a friendly acquaintance between us.
“While he was at
breakfast, I went to the other room. Ralph had just waked up when I heard the
report of a pistol followed by the cry, “I am shot” from Mr. Kirby. I rushed
through the back door, never dreaming that my husband would kill our child, but
he went to the bedroom while the boy was putting his arms around his neck, shot
him to death. Oh, isn’t it awful, My dear little baby boy who loved him so much
and never did anybody in this world any harm.”’
“Again, the unfortunate
woman was overcome with grief and the reporter left her. Of course, the only
investigation that will be made in the case will be the coroner’s inquest which
Mr. Harris states will be held tomorrow.”
After the Tragedy
The 1892 city directory
showed that Anna Liday had moved away to 21 East Third South, but the
1893 directory showed she had returned to 253 South Fifth West.
Anna Liday’s surviving
son was an athlete who took up bicycle racing. On 18 May 1893 Anna Liday’s
16-year-old son John A Liday “began a trip by bicycle from Salt Lake City to
Chicago, Illinois”, “doing trick riding stops along the way to defray expenses.
He also sold pictures of the LDS Tabernacle and created much interest on the
trip.” He returned from Chicago back to Chicago on 20 July 1893
four days shy of his 17th birthday.
The 1899 city directory
listed Anna C Liday as operating a café called “Liday and Perkins” at 562 West
Second South along with Adelia Perkins. She is listed as residing there while
Adelia Perkins was residing at 530 West Second South.
Abuse by Fred Jewett
In 1899 Fred Jewett [1866-1900]
of 342 West Third South was arrested for committing an assault and battery upon
Mrs. Anna Liday of 375 West First South. Fred Jewett “Proceeded to sue for the
affection of his lady faire, Mrs. Liday not being enamored registered a
very rigorous protest when Jewett drew her down upon his lap and proposed to
caress her whether she would or not. So, releasing herself from his embrace,
she seized upon a hickory cudgel lying near and applied it to the shoulders of
the astonished suitor with such rapidity and well directed forced that he
lost his temper and love all at once, jump and slapped the lady on the face.”
.
“Mrs. Liday testified that Jewell came to her
house one evening to make love to her, and when she gave him the marble heart,
he struck her in the face. A Mr. Gunter appeared for the prosecution Jewett
said, “he was drunk when he committed the offense and in fact had been on a
prolong spree.”
Fred Jewett was found
guilty and was fined $25 . Rather than pay the fine, he “thought that an imprisonment
in jail would be just as good as the Keeley cure and called for commitment
saying that if he got tired, he would pay the balance and get out.” The Keeley
Institute was a rehabilitation program for alcoholism and drug addiction.
The 1899 and 1900 Salt
Lake Directories only listed one person by the name of Fred Jewett and
newspaper accounts stated that he was a barber who had tried several times to
commit suicide by taking morphine until succeeding in October 1900. He was
separated from a wife and family who were listed as living in Colorado in the
1900 federal census.
Anna Liday and William Driscoll
Mrs. Anna Liday and
William Driscoll age 40 in 1904 took out a marriage license although it’s
doubtful they ever married as in many other references to her she was still referred
to as “Mrs. Anna Liday”.
Manager of Furnished
Rooms at 110 South Fourth [Fifth] West
She was the manager of
several boarding houses in block 64 and Block 63 over the years. In 1904 she advertised
furnished rooms at 110 South Fourth [Fifth] West and a newspaper account from
1910 mentioned her also as a lady lord. This location was most likely the
old Nevada House.
“Mrs. Gertrude Farrell,
who lives with her husband at the rooming house run by Mrs. Anna Liday on the
corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and First south street was placed under arrest
last night [20 Jan] charged with stabbing Rosa Coffman, colored, who lived in
the same rooming house. The colored woman was slashed about the throat. Her
condition is not serious. It is claimed that the affair is a culmination of a
quarrel between two women. Mrs. Farrell denies knowledge of the affray.”
The Plumas House
In the 1910’s Anna Liday
managed the Plumas House located on Second South back in block 63. Salt
Lake City’s Mayor Bransford had an interest in the Plumas House and the lodging
was named in honor of Plumas County California where Bransford was at one time
sheriff.
An 1910 article the Salt
Lake Herald published regarding the Plumas House at 529 West Second South, of which Anna Liday was the manager, implied
the hotel to be a “House of Ill-Fame.” The article may have been written
to smear Mayor Bransford who was running for reelection as that both the mayor
and Anna Liday both sued the Salt Lake Herald in 1911.
Anna Liday accused the newspaper
of “maliciously, wantonly, and falsely injuring her good name, fame, and credit
in the community through the publication of a certain false and defamatory
article under the heading of ‘Night in Plumas Rooming House Spent by Reporter’
on August 13 last.”
“Further Mrs. Liday
alleges that the article accused her of consorting with and being influential
with crooks and disreputable persons, all to her damage in the sum of $20,000,
which she asks in her complaint.”
The Herald article
“intended to convey the impression that Mrs. Liday maintained at the Plumas a
disorderly house, or house of ill-fame, that the character of the plaintiff was
bad and unchaste, and that she was guilty of protecting and
harboring crooks and fugitives from justice, and further that the plaintiff was
accessory to the fact of the murder at a rooming house at 110 South Fourth
[Fifth] street where plaintiff was former landlady.
The paper was referring
to the murder of a young 26 year old, recently married Italian man named Leonard
Piro, who was shot while he and his wife boarded at Liday’s rooming house on
Fourth [Fifth] West on 29 July 29, 1910. Piro however was murdered while at work as
bartender at the James Tedesco Saloon on Fourth [Fifth] West and Second South.
He was shot and killed by Joe Ciambrone who was in love with Piro’s wife.
After the article was
published, Mrs. Liday claimed her customers and tenants left the Plumas Rooming
House and she was compelled, within two weeks of the article to close the place
and “seek her livelihood elsewhere.”
Her suit was amended to
just $5000 in damages against the newspaper but was dismissed in May 1912 by
Judge C. W Morse . “The dismissal was on motion of the plaintiff. Attorney
James D. Pardoe who filed the suit for Mrs. Liday withdrew as attorney several
days ago.”
Mrs. Liday Moved to
Idaho
Anna Liday was listed in
a Salt Lake newspaper as being delinquent in paying for some stocks she owned
in 1920. However, her son John Liday had moved to Pocatello Idaho with his
family where he was employed as a “locomotive engineer.”
By 1925 Anna Liday was
listed as working as a maid in the Pocatello General Hospital. She never
remarried and died of cancer at the age of 68 in March 1925 while residing with
her son. She was buried in Pocatello, Idaho’s Mountain View Cemetery although
her marker listed her as “Anna Johnson” not Liday.
Dr. William McCoy & the West Side Drug Store
Dr. William B McCoy,[1863-1905] had
an office on the second floor of the West Side Drug Store and in October 1896
he was tried and convicted on a charge of performing a botched 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 north side of the street in Block 64. He had just passed
his medical examination in 1894 but was convicted 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”.
Frank Collins
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 they
lived to together as man and wife.
Lottie Stanfield died in August 1895 and “was
buried under the name Lottie Collins 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
Eveline Bonnett [1876-1896] was “a
beautiful and charming maiden of Provo City” and 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 pregnant and a victim of
a botched abortion. “Not yet reached twenty,” Eveline Bonnett took the train to
Salt Lake City in February 1896, accompanied by two men, “her lover”, Frank J Carter, and a saloon keeper named Sims M. Duggins. The Bonnett family
were under the impression Eveline went to “make arrangements” for her wedding
to Frank Carter.
On February 17 when she departed for
Salt Lake, 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.”
Frank J Carter [1871-1946]
Frank J Carter, who was “supposed to
have been the cause of Eveline Bonnet’s condition,” worked as a bartender at
the Diamond Saloon in Provo for Sims Duggins. They 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 recently convicted
of adultery and sentenced to nine months in the state penitentiary in Sugar
House.
Sims Duggins [1861-1927]
Sims Duggins was described as “the
big burly saloonkeeper of Provo” and had numerous arrests for fornication and allowing
“faro card” gambling to go on at his Diamond Saloon.
An article from the Wasatch Wave
newspaper 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.”
In a sensational “Cohabitation and
Adultery” case that did not involve polygamy, Duggins was arrested in 1890 for
having a sexual relationship with “Miss Oldfield of American Fork.”.
Duggins was indicted in February
1891 by a Provo Grand Jury on the charge of adultery as that he was a married
man at the time of his arrest. “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.”
“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.”
About the same time, Duggins was
also convicted on a 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 1994 Duggins was arrested with a
prostitute named Rose Brown in Salt Lake City. Duggins,
using the aliases of J.C. and “Jack”, was arrested after being found in
“a house of ill-fame on State Street “kept by one Madam Angell.” When the
police discovered the Duggins and Brown they “were occupying a room where both
were partly undressed, and the general circumstances were of a compromising
nature.” In 1896 Rose Brown was arrested again for prostitution and allowed to
leave town in lieu of being jailed.
In June 1895 Frank Carter purchased
Duggins’ Saloon as that Duggins’ appeal of his conviction of adultery had
failed before Utah’s highest court. The
Utah Supreme Court had “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.”
However, on the strength of a “large petition, signed by many
prominent citizens, including the mayor and prosecuting attorney, and other
officials, he was pardoned.” A newspaper article stated “Utah Offender Pardon.
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 in certain for the help of the Democratic
ticket.”
Bonnett and Duggins
It was speculated that Sims Duggins went
with Frank Carter and Eveline Bonnett to Salt Lake City, not only because he
was their friend, but actually he may have been the one to have impregnated
Bonnett. Carter and Duggins may have taken Eveline Bonnett to Salt Lake to arrange for an abortion as that Carter
would not marry her if she was carrying Duggin’s child.
In January 1896, Eveline Bonnett was
seen at the Diamond Saloon late at night by a witness who testified later that
he saw the pair 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,” stated at a grand jury that “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 6 February 1896, Duggins and Carter had
registered at the hotel, and a week later on February 13, Duggins, Carter and
Bonnett came and stayed overnight, with “the men occupied one room and Miss
Bonnett another, the door between them being locked.”
Seeking an Abortion in Provo
Evidence suggests however, that Bonnett,
Carter and Duggins went to Salt Lake City I February to seek a physician
willing to do an abortion after an attempt to find one in Provo failed.
Two days before leaving for Salt
Lake City, Frank Carter went to the office of his family’s physician, Dr.
Simmons of Provo , “to see him on behalf of a third party.” Dr. Simmons stated
that Carter came to him and asked him to commit an abortion on a young lady at
Springville, and he declined.
Dr. Simmons 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 and as
recently as a year ago, Carter had been “carried into his office having fallen
in the street in a helpless condition on account of the weakness of that organ.”
Carter confided to Dr. Simmons that “there was a young lady in Springville who
was in a delicate way” and Carter wanted Dr. Simmons to “perform an operation
on her.” Dr. Simmons “understood that it was to be an abortion.”
Carter did not offer the doctor money but said
that whatever the expense would be that the “pay would be all right.” However,
Dr. Simmons refused to do the procedure.
The office visit by Carter lasted
“but a few moments” with the doctor’s wife listening in an adjoining room. “Like most women, she was curious and peered
through a partially open door and listened to the conversation.”
Mrs. Mary Massie’s home
Upon arriving in Salt Lake, on
February 17, Carter and Duggins placed Bonnett in a “dingy looking little room,
in one side of a double house, the residence of Mrs. Mary Massie.” Mrs. Massie,
when interviewed after the death of Bonnett,
“gave no satisfactory explanation of why the girl was brought to her
house and spoke as if only she was slightly acquainted with her,” which she
probably was.
Mrs. Massie [1861-1919] was the
widow of Abraham Massie and lived at 276 South First West with her young 14-year-old
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 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 evidently had had left her
there while they went to inquire where they might find a physician willing to
do the procedure. Carter and Duggins met with a physician named Dr. Harry
Seymour Hicks [1863-1896] who had consumption
and may have been too ill to perform the operation himself and therefore
recommended Dr. William McCoy with whom he was acquainted. 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.”
Arrangements were made for Eveline
Bonnett to go to the West Side Drug Store to meet with Dr. McCoy. He 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 same pseudonym she used with
Mrs. Massie.
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 he believed that she may have already tried
a botched abortion, either self induced or with the help of another 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,” claimed he heard noises from
the office upstairs as if “persons struggling and rolling on the floor and also
heard the screams of the woman.”
A Mrs. Betty Smith, “a buxom-looking
woman”, who lived in the same building where the West Side Drug Store was
located, said she saw a young girl going into McCoy’s office for several days
in February “whom she identified from a photograph as Eveline Bonnett.” She stated
that she also “heard the girl scream while she was in the doctor’s office.”
When Mrs. Smith went to investigate,
she said Dr. McCoy acted agitated and accused her of snooping and said to her,
“You have been watching my patient”. She denied she had been probing and said
she came into his office only because she heard the girl scream. Mrs. Smith claimed then that Dr. McCoy had
told her that the patient screamed as that he had been “pulling teeth for her.”
Collins claimed that when Dr. McCoy
came down from his office he was “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.” He also stated that when Bonnett left, “she
looked pale and appeared to be suffering great pain.”
Both Collins and Smith may have had
ulterior motives in recalling what they had seen while testifying in court. It
was brought out by the defense attorney that Mrs. Smith had approached Dr.
McCoy after learning of his arrest and the death of Bonnett. It was alleged
that she told Dr. McCoy “that if he would pay her expenses, she would leave
town.” Dr. McCoy told the woman that “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.”
Bonnett made her way back to Mrs.
Mary Massie’s residence where she suffered in great pain for several days. The
girl was placed on the floor where she writhed in agony. The widow testified
that before the young woman died “her temperature very high and I fear blood
poisoning.”
Mrs. Massie fearing Bonnett was
dying sent her daughter to “fetch Dr. McCoy to attend her.” Frank Carter also fearing
the worse for Eveline Bonnett on Saturday February 29th called her brother
James Bonnett to come up from Provo to be with Eveline which he did. 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.”
James Bonnett said that within a
half an hour after arriving at the “hovel”, he met with Dr. McCoy and a Dr.
Frank Noyes who had been called in from Provo. Dr. Frank Noyes said he was
summoned to Salt Lake by “Mr. Carter” on February 29 but said he “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, Dr. Noyes said he first met with Dr. McCoy at the White House Hotel
and “had a consultation regarding Bonnett.” Afterwards seeing the girl at Mrs.
Massie “found her as Dr. McCoy had described.” Dr. McCoy had told Dr. Noyes when
the girl had first called on him, she stated that she was a married woman. Dr.
McCoy claimed that she 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 concluded, “including abortion.”
Frank Carter also called Eveline
Bonnett’s brother David Bonnett to come to Salt Lake to attend to his dying sister.
Carter had told David Bonnett that his sister and he had come up to Salt Lake
to “arrange for getting married” and David Bonnett remarked later, “I had such
confidence in that boy that I believed him.”
Upon arriving at Mrs. Massie’s
place, David Bonnet was told by Dr. McCoy that he suggested that “other
physicians could be called in”, but Dr. Noyes advised him that it was useless
as “that his sister was dying.” Dr. Noyes did what he could to alleviate
Eveline Bonnet’s suffering “but was satisfied she could not recover.”
David Bonnett claimed that his
sister said to him while dying, “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 to him,
“I believe I am going to die. If I do 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” for Eveline as “she didn’t even have a pauper’s bed.” She had been
placed on the floor as there was not a bed or cot for her to lay on in the
Massie home.
The two men were in the West Side
drug store, when Dr. McCoy returned and
announced that the girl “was dead” and he “had tied her jaws.” David
Bonnett inquired “where he could get an undertaker” and Dr. McCoy
answered rather callously “ that he did not supply undertakers.”
Eveline Bonnett died on 1 March
1896. Her hands “were clasped in death,
her face shrunken, and the body gave every evidence that death had been
horrible and painful agony.”
When death occurred, Dr. McCoy made
out the death certificate, specifying the cause of death as “peritonitis
induced by EntriMetrites which latter in plain English means “inflammation of
the womb and intestines.” Dr. Noyes however 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. Noyes
testified that Dr. McCoy was the primary physician in attendance, and that he only
“consulted on the case as to treatment. ”
Evidently Dr. McCoy was so concerned
about the ramification of the girl’s death, that he went to see Dr. Hicks.
Frank Collins claimed he saw the pair come back to the drug store “arm in arm” and
learning of Bonnett’s death, the drug
store clerk counseled McCoy saying, “You had better be fixing up a defense for
yourselves.”
The Inquest
Utah County held an inquest to
ascertain the facts relating to Eveline Bonnett’s death. Investigators went to
Salt Lake City to interviewed those who had knowledge and were associated with
her death.
Mrs. Massie was questioned as then was
Dr. McCoy. When questioned, Dr. McCoy 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 said
he “never had patients at Mrs. Massie’s before” and that a “little girl called
him to attend the patient.” Frank Carter may have told the doctor that Mrs.
Massie and Eveline Bonnett were related however Mrs. Massie claimed she hardly
knew the girl and had taken her in for the money. R. McCoy also told the investigators that he
consulted with Dr. Noyes of Provo the day before Bonnett died and said he also
consulted with Dr. Hicks about the case.”
Asked to why no autopsy was
performed Dr. McCoy told investigators that Bonnett’s “was a very complicated case and that no
autopsy was performed” as that the undertaker had “suggested the family
wouldn’t permit one.”
He was then asked, “Was there any
evidence that would lead you to believe than an abortion had been attempted.”
Dr. McCoy hesitatingly replied, “From what the girl told me, I inferred that
she had attempted one upon herself, “ but then stated, “There was no evidence
of the violent use of instruments nor arsenic poisoning.”
It was reported that “Dr. McCoy
spoke with great hesitancy” and evidently was reluctant to go into details
about Eveline’s death as “he did not wish to say anything that might reflect
upon the dead girl or her relatives.” Although
he told the inquest investigators that “he
would probably be more explicit if he were on the witness stand.”
News of the Death of Eveline Bonnett
Eveline Bonnett’s body was shipped
back to Provo and her funeral was held a few days after her death which to many
appeared “suspicious due to rumors in Utah County.” The family had its own suspicions
on how the girl died “from the first which, in their great grief, they hardly
dared whisper even to each other.”
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 medical examiner” of Utah County had examined Eveline 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” and agreed that she died from blood poisoning.
Dr. Allen also made a reference to a
puncture found in a private part of the deceased body and he said while “it
might possibly be self inflicted, though such a proceeding would be very
painful.”
“The womb had been lacerated with
instruments and part of the placenta was left to fester and decay and to cause
the poor victim of fiendish lust to die a most agonizing, most tortuous death.”
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.” He stated, “There
were just two ways in which the wound previously referred to could have been
inflicted, in the ordinary way and by the undertaker while embalming.”
Criminal Charges Filed
Upon learning the results of the
autopsy, Eveline Bonnett’s father, James Bonnett, swore out a complaint
charging Sims M. Duggins, Frank Carter, Dr. McCoy, Dr. Noyes, and Mrs. Massie
as contributing to the death his daughter.
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.”
The complaint read: “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 until on or about the 1st 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 premeditated malice and aforethought kill and murder the said E. Bonnett.”
A Salt Lake Deputy Sheriff, named 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” which suggested why Eveline Bonnett wanted an abortion and that Sims
Duggins may have been the actual father.
Arrests and Court Proceedings
Dr. McCoy and Mrs. Massie were
arrested in Salt Lake while Carter, Duggins, and Dr. Noyes were arrested in
Provo and brought to Salt Lake to be held in jail until a preliminary hearing.
They were all charged with first degree murder.
“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 preliminary
hearing in “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’s
court. “The Little courtroom 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. Also at the preliminary hearing, charges against Mrs.
Massie of her involvement with the death of Eveline Bonnett were also “discharged.”
The attorney for Dr. McCoy, Frank Carter, and Sim Duggins asked for the
charges against them be dismissed also, as that “in the first place that it had
not been proved that a crime has been committed as was alleged.”
“It was not disputed that an
abortion had been performed but the counsel for the accused 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. The three men managed to secure bonds to be released from prison. Jim
Hegney, owner of the Westside Drug Store, was a surety for half of Dr. McCoy’s
bond.
Out Rage in Utah County
When news of Eveline’s death reached
Utah County, the Provo Journal newspaper wrote that she had been “found dying
in squalor and filth, writhing in agony upon the hard floor of a wretched hovel
in the slums of Salt Lake, without as much as a cot to rest her weary bones.”
Reports like these enflamed public indignation especially against Sims Duggins.
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, it was reported
that upon “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 and with newspapers filled with “deep feeling of indignation
against him and his place of business.”
The Mormon Relief Society women of
the First, Third and Fourth Provo Wards met to deal with the “moral outrage”
which had been reported in the newspapers. The Salt Lake Tribune wrote, “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 women of the Fourth Ward
sent a petition “signed by many” to the Provo City council and demanded the
city close Duggin’s saloon due to the notoriety of the death of Eveline Bonnett.
They also asked, “the council to refuse a license to the Diamond Saloon.”
The petition read, “Whereas the late
proprietors S.M. Duggins, et al, 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.”
The women behind the petition
demanded that the building owned by Duggins “not be used as a saloon by anybody”
for the reason that the interior was 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.”
Sims Duggins upon learning of the
petition and fearing a boycott of his other properties, “at once ordered his
place of business closed and communicated that he had done so to Provo’s mayor
and city council.” Duggins “realized he could do nothing in his particular line
of business in Provo or vicinity with the feeling of the public against him.”
He feared a boycott of his other properties that “belonged to his wife,”
claiming those businesses were all she had “to depend upon to support herself
and family.
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 that the Bonnett case
had elicited, the name of W.A. Wilson was substituted for Carter’s.
The Diamond Saloon after it was
closed was immediately relicensed as the
“Occidental Saloon” with the title to the property being in Mrs.
Duggins’ name.
The Trial of Dr. William McCoy
By April 1896, charges against those in James Bonnett’s
initial complaint were dropped except for Dr. William McCoy, Sim Duggins, and
Frank Carter. However, Dr. Harry Seymour Hicks was indicted in April for his
participation in Bonnett’s death, but in May 1896 he had passed away from his
battle with consumption, on the day he was to marry his fiancé.
The three men left who were indicted
in the death of Eveline Bonnett had asked to be tried separately. Dr. William
McCoy was the first to be tried for contributing to the death of Eveline
Bonnett. 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. He went to
trial in October 1896.
At the trail, the prosecution “sprung
two surprises 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.”
The prosecution in a surprise move
dismissed all charges against Sims Duggins “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. McCoy, Frank Carter, and Dr. Hicks
were dismissed.”
It was commented 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 Frank Carter and
Eveline Bonnett. A Provo newspaper paper even commented on “the release of Sim
Duggins in the famous Bonnett abortion case, on the plea of State’s evidence,” stating
it had “ a queer look to it”. The paper claimed that Duggins “certainly said
nothing that would warrant his release, as payment of his testimony.”
Mrs. Massey and Dr. Noyes were also
called to testify by the prosecution against the Dr. McCoy “as those charges
against them had been dismissed.”
James Hegney, as owner of the West
Side Drug Store. was called to testify for the defense. He said, “he was
present in the Westside 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, the former clerk in
the West Side Drug Store, who was waiting to be sworn in to testify say,
referring to Dr. McCoy, “I know damn well he is innocent.”
Nevertheless, the most damaging
testimony against Dr. McCoy came from Collins. He had left Utah after the
arrest of Dr. McCoy 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
further claimed that he “went down to the West Side drug store on the Sunday [1
March] Harry Hynds shot Dinwoodey.” Collins was referring to sensational
killing of Walter Dinwoodey by Harry Hynds for having an affair with Hynds’
wife. At the time it was reported to be the “sole topic of discussion on the
streets.”
Collins stated he heard Dr. McCoy,
referring to his own predicament saying, “I might get into trouble myself
before tonight.” Collins said that when he asked Dr. McCoy how Eveline Bonnett
was faring, Dr. McCoy 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 back 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.” Dr. McCoy
supposedly replied, “That’s what we are doing.”
Collins told the jury that he once “went
to see McCoy after he was in jail,” bringing him “cigars” and 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 Police Detective Edward A
Franks testified for the defense, he
stated that Collin had told him that he ought to be able to make some money out
of the Bonnett case and that Eveline Bonnett had told her brother James that it
was a Dr. McCurtin who had operated with instruments on her.
Finally, Dr. McCoy testified on his
own 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 where I have done wrong and want to be forgiven.
Her brother heard this statement.”
Dr McCoy declared that Frank Collins
had lied when he testified that McCoy swore saying “Damn Bitch”. He asserted,
“I never used such language in reference to Miss Bonnett nor any other person
at any time or place. 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.”
Verdict and Imprisonment
Dr. McCoy was found guilty by the impaneled
Jurists, which convicted 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.”
Dr. William McCoy was sentenced by
the court “to be imprisoned for a period
of eight years in the state’s prison.” The Salt Lake Herald wrote of his
conviction “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
also, “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.”
As for Frank Carter, he was never
tried for his part in the Bonnett tragedy. Salt Lake County attorney Van Cott
secured a court order 25 January 1897 in which murder charges against Dr.
William McCoy and Frank Carter were dropped, “as that Dr. McCoy was already
serving a sentence in the state penitentiary”.
“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.”
Dr. McCoy Paroled
Dr. William McCoy, convicted
primarily on the testimony of Francis J Collins, was paroled in May 1899 when
affidavits were presented to the court 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 of Pardons “calling for his release.”
In December 1899 Dr. McCoy received
a full pardon after having served more than two years in prison. He went back
to work at the West Side Drug Store where a Robert Heath was now the drug store
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.
The Death of Dr. McCoy
Dr. William 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.
Harry F. Evans’ West End
Grocery Store
A wooden one-story
building listed as a store was according to the 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
was the location of Harry F Evans’ Grocery Store.
Harry Frederick Evans
[1843-1914], a native of Wales, was listed at 105 South Fifth [Sixth] in 1892 with a “general Merchandize store at
111 South Fifth West. He lived on the northwest portion of Block 64 in Lot
Five.
Evans immigrated to the
United States and settled in Scranton Pennsylvania. There Evans enlisted in the
United States Army and Navy during the Civil War. An article about his navy
experience during the civil war, printed
in 1909, stated, “Evans’ service at sea during the civil war was long and
creditable. He fought on such vessels as the Susquehanna, Cumbria, Quincey, and
the Old North Carolina. He is one of the few who have too their credit both
land and sea service.”
“A civil war veteran,
who saw service on the famous naval organization of the great civil war known
as the Flying Squadron, is in receipt from the Flying Squadron of Naval
Veterans, of a certificate of membership in that noted organization. Besides
baring the picture of Admiral [David] Farragut, under who Mr. Evans saw
service, the certificate sets forth his service on the Cambria,
Susquehanna, and North Carolina war vessels.
After leaving Scranton,
Pennsylvania, “he traveled with the course of empire westward,”
eventually coming to Utah Territory. He was married in 1870 to a Welsh
woman named Elizabeth [1855-1829] also with the same surname of Evans. A
daughter was born in Utah in 1876. The 1900 census stated they were the parents
of six children however only one was living in 1900, Martha Evans, [1876-1953].
His obituary stated that he was father of two sons and five daughters, however
one of these daughters would have been his adopted niece Edyth Mary Evans.
In Salt Lake City Evans
“was one of the most prosperous businessmen in Salt Lake; a man of ability, and
famous for his patriotism, as the honor conferred on him by the I O O F [Odd
Fellows] of his adopted home proves.” In 1893 Harry F Evans served as
Grand Master of the Odd Fellows.
This home was later
renumbered as 571 West First South. By 1898 the property had been developed by
two sets of duplexes built eleven feet south of his store with the addresses
of 113 South, 115 South, 117 South, and 119 South fronting Fifth West.
In 1882 Harry F. Evans
leased from James Moyle a parcel of land on the west side of the north half of
Lot five. He paid $60 annually for the property on which he built the West Side
Grocery store at 111 South and his residence at 571 West First South.
In 1883 Harry F. Evans
dissolved a partnership with T.P. Lewis. “Notice is Hereby Given That the firm hereto
existing under the name of Evans & Lewis, Merchants “West End” Store,
corner of First South and Fifth West is this date dissolved by mutual consent.
All unsettled accounts of said firm will be adjusted by H. F. Evans, who will
continue the business at the old stand.”
The 1883 city directory
listed Harry Evans as having a general merchandise at 111 South Fifth West
residing at 105 South Fifth West. Harry F. Evans bought the northwest
corner of Lot Five from James Henry Moyles in 1885. The property consisted of 6
rods [99 feet along First South and 10 rods [165 feet] along Fifth west.
The 1888 directory still listed H.F Evan’s
West End Store at 111 South Fifth Street and H.F. Evans as a storekeeper at 105
South Fifth West. The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed only two addresses
for this property, that of 111 South Fifth West which was the address of the
West Side Grocery and 105 South Fifth West which was the Evans’ residence. The 1890
city directory continued to list “Henry F Evans grocer” as residing at
105 South Fifth West. By 1893 the residence of Evans however was renumbered as
571 West First South.
In 1885 “a petition was
submitted from H.F. Evans and ninety-five others, directing attention to the
present condition of First South Street at the point of intersection with Fifth
[Sixth] West, and also to the streets leading south and west from that point.
They asserted that the place was positively dangerous after dark, to persons
unacquainted with the locality, and dangerous to teams. Other places in the
same locality were in like condition.
The petitioners asked
that culverts be placed at the crossing of Fifth West Street to conduct the
water and that the necessary improvements be made on the streets named by
graveling, etc.” The petition was adopted in August 1885 when “the committee on
streets and alleys reported they had
considered the petition of H.F. Evans asking for much needed repairs on First
South near Fifth West. They found the street in a bad condition and recommended
that the Supervisor of streets be instructed to repair without delay.”
Evans seemed to have trouble with horses at this
location. In 1888, he offered a “$10 Reward for a horse black and white right
hind foot, branded on left thigh with a half circle and under H. Strayed from
the West End Store, Fifteenth Ward. Above reward will be paid to who returns
the same to H.F Evans, West End Store Fifteenth War.”
Again in 1890 Harry F Evans listed an advertisement for a
lost horse. “Strayed from premises, 15-year-old black horse about 15 hands
high, branded JE on left shoulder: small white spot-on forehead. H. F. Evans
West End Store 111 South Fifth West.”
Evans was a promoter of
the Liberal Party. In July 1890 he had published “Attention! The delegates from
the Fifteenth Ward to the Liberal Convention are requested to meet at the Rio
Grande Hotel at 9:30 a.m. today [July 21] for the purpose of organizing;
filling vacancies etc. Please Be Prompt. H.F Taylor, James Hegney, H.F Evans. “
The 1891 city
directory listed H F Evans grocer at this address. This location was also known
as “The Evans Mercantile Company and Grocers” at this address. In 1900 four new
substations for the Salt Lake Post office were opened and one was at this
address. “Station No. 4 will be at 111 South Fifth West Street, with Harry F.
Evans in charge.”
Employed as Deputy County Clerk
Harry F Evans gave up
operating his Grocery store and in 1901 was appointed a Deputy Clerk for Salt
Lake County. He helped with counting all the votes in county elections as well
as serving as a court clerk during various trials.
Evans was the Deputy County
Clerk who was handed the verdict for the sensational Greek Kothiasftis murder
trial, who then read it out loud to the jurors. The verdict of not guilty was
the cause of a feud in neighboring Greek Town on Second South .
Harry F Evans must have
enjoyed traveling. In 1894 Evans went back to Wales for six months to “visit
among the friends of his childhood. In 1909 He spent two weeks in the northwest. “Harry F Evans deputy
county clerk is home from a trip through the “northwest which included a visit
to the Alaska-Yukon Pacific exposition.”
While he was away “S.H.
Melet was arrested this afternoon [12 Aug 1909] by Patrolmen [Joseph] Bush and
[H.A.] Heath on suspicion of having been implicated on the robbery of Harry F
Evans’ residence at 571 West First Street, in which over $500 of jewelry was
stolen. Melet claims to be a tinner, and recently was employed by Mr. Evans to
repair some locks at his residence.”
Perhaps the increasing crime
of the Rio Grande area had Harry F. Evans move away from 571 West First South
in 1910 but more than likely it was because the city was building a “red light
district” in the heart of Block 64 which would have adjoined his
property.
The 1910 federal census
and the city directory listed his new residence at 1150 East First South where
he died in 1914.
Death of Harry Evans
One obituary stated that
Evans was a former clerk in Judge T. D. Lewis’ court, that he was a Mason. It
was the Masons of Argenta lodge No 3 who provided the service for his funeral.
He was also a member of the St Mark’s Episcopal Church.
An obituary stated, “Harry
F Evans, veteran of the civil war and deputy county clerk of Salt Lake County
since 1901, died this morning [28 November 1914] at his home 1150 East First
South Street, as the result of a paralytic stroke suffered Wednesday morning.
He was apparently in perfect health until last Monday, when he was affected
with a cold that caused him to remain away from the office on Tuesday.”
“Mr. Evans had been
prominent in public life in Utah since he came here in 1868. He was a member of
the city council under the first Liberal administration and was appointed
deputy county clerk by John James during his clerkship. He was a member of the
Masonic and Odd Fellow lodges, and at the time of his death a past grand master
of the latter order. He was secretary of the Intermountain Cambrian Association
and was active in the McKenna post of the G.A. R. [Grand Army of the Republic]”
“He was born May12, 1843
in Monmouthshire, South Wales. He came to America in 1859, setting in Scranton,
Pa. In 1861 he enlisted in the union army and served a year. He attained the
rank of major in his regiment and then resigned his commission to take one of
lieutenant in the navy. He was released from the navy in 1865.”
“In 1868 he came
west, living for about two years in both Utah and California. In 1870 he
married Elizabeth Evans of Salt Lake. They had five daughters and two sons. Two
of whom Mrs. William Pischell and Mrs. T.L. [Thomas L] Williamson are still
living. He is also survived by his wife.” Edyth Mary Evans who married
Thomas L Williamson was actually his niece that he brought over from Wales in
1895 and raised as his own daughter.
“Prior to his appointment
as deputy county clerk, Mr. Evans conducted a grocery store at the corner of
Fifth west and First South Streets.” He was buried in Mount Olivet
cemetery.
Cloyd L and Edith Martin Sanford’s Store
596 West Second South
also known as 576 West Second South
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a small wooden structure at this address listed as a
store. The 1899 City directory for Salt Lake City listed this address as the
residence of Cloyd L Sanford [1860-1945] and his wife Edith Martin Sanford
[1871-1944], shopkeepers.
The Sanford’s Store
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance map showed that this site contained a one-story wooden building used
as a store and attached to the building at 576 West. Some 37 feet behind the
Supply Store was a wooden building with the address of 598 ½ West that the
Sanborn map listed as “not used” mostly like a storage barn or shed. The 1899
City directory for Salt Lake City listed this address as 598 West Second South but also known as
580 West Second South as the Sanford’s Supply Company, a grocer, and
meats store.
The Robert Mallahan
Incident
In November 1899,
“Robert Mallahan, a Rio Grande Western machinist, made things lively at the
store of the Sanford Supply company corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth]
West about 10 o’clock last night. He flashed a gun in the course of his
jubilations and caused a great deal of excitement. Mallahan was drunk.”
Robert Mallahan had been
part of a confidence scheme with a man named “H Smith” who had registered at
the Grand Pacific hotel on 380 West South Temple and “left two grips in custody
of the clerk.” “Twenty minutes later the clerk went off duty and the night room
dispenser took his place.”
“With the advent of the
new man, Robert Mallahan put in his appearance and asked for his grips; the
clerk felt rather dubious regarding giving him the items but as the man
described the contents, he was allowed to take them.”
“Of course, ten minutes
later the ‘rightful owner’ of the grips came along and nearly tore the place
down in his endeavor s to get the value of his missing property. In the
meantime, Mallahan had gone out into a vacant lot and hidden the valises, first
having abstracted a gun from one of them. Then he encountered some small boys
and asked to be directed to the Albany Hotel. To reward them for their
information, Mallahan entered the store of C L Sanford near the Rio Grande
Western Depot.”
“A small shepherd dog,
tied to a short rope in the Sanford supply store on Fifth West and Second
South, came near precipitating a shooting affair last night shortly after 10
o’clock.”
“R.R. Mallahan, an
ex-brakeman, on the Rio Grande, walked into the store, considerably under the
influence of liquor, it is said, and proceeded about in a leisurely manner.”
“He approached the
proprietor of the store, C.L. Sanford,” and asked the delivery boy Hyrum W.
Houston to change him a quarter. “There was a dog tied to the rear of the room
and while Mr. Sanford was getting the change, Mallahan staggered around and
fell over the dog. The latter let out a howl to raise the neighborhood and the
drunken man swore he was bitten and cursed furiously. He insisted on killing
the dog, but Mr. Sanford ordered him out of the store arguing that he should
not use such language in the presence of his lady customers” and his wife Mrs.
Sanford.
“No sooner had the man
reached the door said Sanford, than he whipped out a large gun and threatened
to blow the whole top of my head off.” “Mallahan did not carry out the threat
but contented himself it is said with flourishing the gun.”
“Mallahan was taken
kindly but firmly out on the sidewalk, whereupon he pulled a gun and poked it
in Houston’s face.”
“Mallahan got halfway
out the door and suddenly whirled upon the proprietor and Hyrum Houston, the
delivery boy who were doing the ejecting, and brandished a six-shooter. Without
carrying out his threats to make a pepper box of the two gentlemen, he
disappeared, but was later arrested by Officer Fitzmaurice at the Hegney Saloon
across the street from the store. He had put his gun away. Mallahan will
probably be charged with exhibiting a deadly weapon.”
As for his accomplice,
Smith, he had been “working like a beaver to get the man who “stole” his grip
out of jail ever since the police have reason to believe that a clever graft
was put on the hotel.”
At the trial, “a half a
dozen small boys who saw the trouble was put on the stand,” to testify. Robert
Mallahan was convicted “for exhibiting a deadly weapon and shaking it in the
face of C L Sanford of the Sanford Supply company”, and he was sentenced by the
police court of a fine of $590 or fifty days in jail. Mallahan was so angry
that he said, “he would clean out the whole outfit,” when released.
The Sanford’s Residence
In March 1899 C L
Sanford, located “at the “corner of
Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West” place an advertisement stating “Lost,
Strayed or Stolen. Small, Black, dehorned milch cow, branded ‘T’ on left ribs.
Liberal reward for return.”
Perhaps the Sanfords
decided that Second South was becoming too rough of a neighborhood and by June
1900 they were living in Tooele Utah. His occupation still given as a
merchant. In Tooele he was listed also as a manager of a mining
company and may have made enough money to retire on as no further occupation
was given for him although they moved around and went on various
vacation.
The couple lived in
Tooele until at least the next two decades before leaving Utah all together and
moving to Southern California. In 1920 the couple lived in Brawley, Imperial
County, California before they were enumerated in the 1930 census as living in
Chula Vista, in San Diego County.
By 1935 they had moved
to Orange County and lived on Euclid Street which was then considered Anaheim
but now a part of Garden Grove. They are living there in the 1940’s. When they
died, they were buried in what was then known as the pioneer Westminster
Cemetery but now the Magnolia Memorial Park. Coincidently, in 1971
I did a report of the Magnolia Cemetery for a history class project at Cypress
College, California.
By 1911 this former address
of the Sanford Store was also shown to be “576 West Second South”.
Joseph J Duckworth’s Blacksmith
and Machine Shop complex
542 West Second South
AKA 149 South Within Block 64 Union
On the north
Fourth [Fifth] of Lot Three in the center of Block 64 was the Blacksmith and
Machine Shop complex of Joseph J. Duckworth [1851-1909]. An easement listed as
a private drive in the 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map gave access to the
property from Second South between 544 West and 534 West. In the northwest
corner of Lot Three was a one and a half story wooden dwelling that was
numbered 542 ½ West. In 1898 it was located north of the four brick homes on
west Boyd Avenue
The Blacksmith and
Foundry was a one story large wooden structure nearly 70 feet in length
containing a “shoeing shop”, a coal bin and three other structures. The
building addresses were referred to as 149 ½, 1/3, ¼, 1/5, and 1/6. The
horseshoeing shop was 149 1/5 while a carpenter shop was labeled 149 1/6.
Joseph Duckworth was an
Englishman who immigrated to the United States in and marred a Scottish
immigrant named Annie Beaton in 1875. They settled in Trenton, Cache County,
Utah where he is listed as a farmer in the 1880 federal census. They eventually
became the parents of eight sons and one daughter. Three of their sons and
their only daughter died in childhood.
In 1890 Joseph J
Duckworth sold “two new ten tons Rick Drays”, carts for delivering beer barrels
or heavy loads from his “Union Blacksmith and Machine Shop. The city
directory listed his address as 542 West between First and Second South.
In 1891. “The Union
Foundry made its first cast yesterday [March 8] at 542 West Second South
Street. It was a success.” An advertisement from April 1891 stated Union
Foundry Architectural Iron Work-Machinery castings 542 West Second South Street
Salt Lake City, Half block East D.&R.G Passenger Depot.”
Death of Sons
The Duckworth family’s residence
was also at 542 West South Street in 1890 when J.J. Duckworth’s son was killed.
He was ran over by an electric streetcar of the Salt Lake City Railway Company.
The accident occurred on Second South only a little more than a week after the
death of the Duckworth’s infant son.
“Walter Duckworth age 8
son of J. J. Duckworth, the well know blacksmith, was run over, and killed on
Second South between Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth Street by Electric Car No. 8. The
boy and others were playing on the street opposite the Duckworth Residence. As
it chanced, they were in front of a team belonging to the Mountain Ice Company
which was backed towards the south side walk and was in charge of W.K Miller
the driver. Car No 8 was at that moment approaching from the west when about
one rod from where the boys were.”
Miller testified he had
started his team, turning horses west when the streetcar was traveling about 7
miles an hour. He told the boys to get out of the way and the trolley “rang its
bell repeatedly,” but the confused boy ran in front of the streetcar.
The grief-stricken father sued the streetcar company for $10,000.
By 1893 Joseph Duckworth
had moved his residence away from Second South to 1034 West Third South however
he is still listed as the owner of the “Union Iron Works” at 542 West.
The Union Foundry was a
one and half story building, although its furnace’s core oven was constructed
of bricks.
Duckworth was active in
the Liberal Party as were many of the men of the Rio Grande District area. He
was nominated for a candidate on the Liberal Ticket in 1893 and in 1894 he was
involved with the Industrial Army. The Industrial Army was a collection of
unemployed men who had banded together to demand Congress address the impact of
the Panic of 1893 on the working man. He was a drum major for the Regimental
Drum Corps.
The economic depression
caused by the Panic of 1893 affected Duckworth in 1895 when he was sued by R.
D. Amos to whom he owed $28.35. Amos owned a meat market located on Fifth
[Sixth] West. Also, in that year a news account stated that Duckworth,
“formerly of this city but who last fall removed to Idaho where he suffered an
accident by breaking his leg, has recover and returned to Zion and will accept
a position as general foreman of the Star Foundry and Machine Company.” He
became the general foreman of the Star Foundry and Machine Co at 135 South Third
West.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed that the location of the Union Foundry owned by John J
Halpin had by that year not been in in operation and the old Duckworth shop and
residence had been demolished.
The family moved back to
the residence at 1038 West Third South and lived there until 1898 when later
the family moved to Idaho again. The 1900 federal census listed Duckworth as living
back in Pocatello, Idaho employed as a blacksmith foreman. The census stated
that he and his wife were the parents of nine children. Sometime after the
census the family relocated back to Salt Lake City where he died in 1909.
Death of Duckworth
Duckworth’s obituary
stated he was a “master blacksmith of the Denver & Rio Grande railroad at
Salt Lake” and had not “enjoyed good heath since meeting with an accident in
the railroad shops in 1908. Mr. Duckworth was listed among the advanced
railroad mechanical foremen who have made a good record for themselves in this
country. He spent eight years in England and twenty-nine years at the trade in
this country six years of which time he was in business in Salt Lake for
himself.”
Fred Robert’s Junk Store
526 ½ West and 530 ½
West Second South
In the interior of Lot
Two was a one-story wooden building listed as 526 ½ West accessed only by
a private alley easement just to the east of 526 West. This dwelling was in the
middle section of Lot Two and near it was a two-story storage barn at 530
½ West listed as “junk yard containing a two-story barn.”
By 1891 Fred Roberts
[1864-1902] was residing in the rear of at this address as a “junk dealer” where he operated a
“junk store” at this location buying scrap metal of all types. Roberts was a well-known
junk dealer and “for some years past had operated a foundry and junk shop at
242 State Street under the title of William Penders and Sons.”
Roberts was born in
Yorkshire, England and emigrated to the United States with his family when he
was ten years old. They settled into Haverhill, Massachusetts where his father,
an Irishman named Alexander Roberts, was also a “junk dealer” He married in
1884 and moved to Salt Lake City at least by 1890 if not earlier.
In 1888 a Fred Roberts
appeared in the police court charged with “drunkenness and resisting the
officers” and fined $20. As those other residents of the Rio Grande District,
Robert Harman, and William Bess, were both also listed in the police court report,
this Fred Roberts was probably the same as the junk dealer. He was arrested
again in 1890 for drunkenness and fined $5.
The 1891 city directory
listed him as a junk dealer residing in the rear of 524 West Second South. He
advertised in 1893 that “I will pay you $12.25 per ton for good wrought
scrap-Iron F. Roberts”. He resided at this address at least through 1901.
A newspaper article from
1899 mentioned Fred Roberts as part of a story on junk dealers receiving stolen
scrap metal although the story did not accuse him as being one of them, just
one of his employees. “The dealers in junk of this city who are in the habit of
buying stolen goods at a low figure, and thus aiding the thieves, may look for
trouble if their practice is carried any longer. The crusade against junkmen
was begun by the arrest of E. Jacobson an employee of Fred Roberts, whose junk
shop is located at 524 West Second South Street. Fred Roberts came into the
police station for Jacobson and signed a bond of $300 as a guarantee for his
appearance. The police have been on the lookout for some time to catch junk
dealers at such business and they intend to make it hot for them.”
The 1900 City Directory
for Salt Lake City had a listing for Fred Roberts under the heading of as
“Junk, rear West Second South, residence same, telephone 853.” The 1900
federal census however did not enumerate Fred Roberts at this address. A widow
named Effie Studebaker and her three young children were listed at this
address.
In 1900 Roberts, ‘a junk
man was assessed $2 for expectorating on the sidewalk contrary to the ordinance
in such case made and provided.”
Marital difficulties
became apparent when on 1 July 1901, Mrs. Margaret Roberts “alleged that her
husband, pushed her about the rooms in a forcible manner and attempted to
compel her to remain there, thereby hurting her and bruising her.”
She may have accused him of having an affair with a young
married woman who worked for his foundry as a bookkeeper named Mrs. Minnie
Rosina Schnell Cooper [1874-1948] “a handsome woman.” Roberts had become
“infatuated” with Mrs. Cooper.
Minnie Cooper
Minnie Schnell Cooper
was the daughter of German emigrants who married Charles E. Cooper [1861-1924]
on 20 Sept 1893 in Salt Lake City. “Some 350 invitations have been issued for
the wedding of Miss Minnie R Schnell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C.W. A. Schnell
to Charles E Cooper. The ceremony will take place at St. Paul’s church.”
Mrs. Cooper had
separated from her husband Charles E. Cooper by 1900 and was living with her
five-year-old daughter while her husband left Utah to work at a store in
Pueblo, Colorado. Minnie Cooper had filed for divorce on grounds of desertion
but later changed her mind fearing that she might lose custody of her five-year-old
daughter.
In September 1901 at
Liberty Park, Mrs. Margaret Roberts encountered her husband Fred Roberts and
Minnie Cooper together. He was “chatting on one of the settees with her in
Liberty Park” when “Mrs. Roberts happened to visit the park” and found her
husband and Mrs. Cooper together. “A scene followed in which Mrs. Cooper was
put to flight by the irate wife.”
“An irate woman followed
her husband to the park and there found him in company with an attractive
maiden, and how the wife slapped the girl until her nose bled and treated the
erring man likewise, the enamored couple seeking the safety in flight to the
intense amusement of many who saw the incident.”
Files for Divorce
“The sequel to the
sensational episode which occurred on Sunday evening last when an enraged wife
smashed the nose of a young woman who was being entertained by her husband,
appeared in the Third District Court yesterday [September 17] in the shape of a
suit for divorce.
“It was two days
[September 17] after this, she filed for divorce naming Mrs. Cooper as
co-respondent” from Fred Roberts and had an “injunction forbidding him to
encumber or dispose of any of his property pending settlement of alimony.”
“For chief cause of
action Mrs. Roberts alleges that on August 1, her husband committed adultery
with Minnie Cooper at Liberty Park and has repeated the offense with the young
woman at various times and places since then. Mrs. Roberts avers that she has
not lived with her husband since she learned of his conduct with Miss Cooper.”
“Another cause of action
in the complaint is that on July 1 of this year the defendant subjected
plaintiff to extreme cruelty by choking, kicking, and beating her, dragging her
over the floor, and threatening to kill her at their home rear of 524 West
Second South Street.”
“The couple were married
at Warrington, England on September 24, 1884, and there are no children the
issue of the marriage.”
“Mrs. Roberts prays for
a decree of separation, temporarily alimony at the rate of $100 monthly and an
equal division of the property by the final decree and $500 for attorney fees.”
Margaret Roberts stated
that her husband’s assets included “several acres of land in Mexico, mortgages
to the amount of $3,000, Robert’s junk business worth $4000, and accounts due
and other assets of the value of $10,000.”
She claimed that she
“helped her husband to accumulate this property and in addition it is alleged
that he owes her $2,500 on a promissory note.”
Divorce Suit Withdrawn
However, by September
25th Margaret Roberts withdrew her divorce suit. A newspaper account stated,
“Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are the couple who engaged in the exciting fracas at
Liberty Park, a week ago last Sunday [September 15] when the wife put her
husband to flight and slapped the face of his young woman companion. On the
following Tuesday she instituted a suit for divorce on the grounds that Roberts
had committed adultery in the park with one Minnie Cooper.”
Mrs. Roberts alleged
further that “her husband had subjected her to extreme cruelty, and she prayed
for an equal division of his property which she claimed is worth several
thousands of dollars.”
Fred and Margaret
Roberts “instead of fighting the controversy out in a judicial way, agreed to a
settlement of their differences out of court.”
Mrs. Roberts did not retract any of her allegations
against her husband but “consented to forget the past and live with him again
because of the fear that both would be financial losers by going through the
process of a legal separation.”
Fred Roberts left Salt Lake City shortly afterwards for
nearly six months, and upon returning in March 1902 found that his business on
Second South had been stripped of its contents by a former employee, Reinhart
Jacobson, to whom he had leased out the property.
Reinhart Jacobson
Reinhart Jacobson had
rented a barn “from Fred Roberts at 524 West Second South Street” when Roberts
left Salt Lake and had “purchased the horse, wagon, harness and tools that were
in the building.” While Roberts was gone Jacobson illegally “appropriated
several padlocks and some timber that were attached to the premises” and when
Roberts returned and found the items missing, he charged Jacobson with
petit larceny.
Roberts returned to
“Find Business Gone, Barns stripped, and Horses Starving-The old story of
Mother Hubbard and her cupboard was repeated with several modifications by
Frederick Roberts, a dealer in second-hand goods at 524 South Second West
Street. Mr. Roberts was gone some time and when he returned his business was gone,
barns were bare, and his poor horses were nearly starved.”
As a result of this
discovery, he had R. [Reinhardt] Jacobson, a former trusted employee arrested
on a charge of having stolen a quantity of shelving, of having even taken the
pad locks from the doors, and of having nearly starved Roberts’ two horses.
Jacobson was taken into custody at Mill Creek yesterday and is now in the
county jail.”
“Six months ago, when
Roberts was suddenly called east, he made arrangements with Jacobson to run the
business. Roberts alleges that according to agreement Jacobson was to take the
dwelling and two barns at the rear of 524 South Second West Street for which he
was to pay a rental of $20 per month. The two horses belonging to Roberts were
sold to Jacobson for $300 but the employer took a mortgage on them for the same
amount of money. This was done because Roberts wanted the animals on his return
and Jacobson had no money. Jacobson was to run the business until the employer
returned.”
“It was Wednesday last
[12 March] when Roberts suddenly returned to the city. Naturally the first
thing for Roberts to do was to go to his place of business. Instead of finding
it in the flourishing state in which he left it, the place was completely shut
down.”
“Investigation in the
neighborhood led to the information that the place had been idle, and Jacobson
not seen for some months. This set the employer to make a more careful
examination which elicited the fact that Jacobson rented the dwelling a few
weeks after Roberts left the city and taking the horses with him was never seen
about the premises.”
“Roberts had no
difficulty getting into the barns, for the padlocks were missing. Inside he
found a couple of bleak and empty barns. Everything of value from harness down
to board shelving was missing.”
“Roberts next move was
to consult an attorney, on whose advice he sworn out a warrant against
Jacobson. The warrant was placed in the hands of Deputy Sheriff Busby, who
located the man at Mill Creek, together with another of the missing items.
Principal among these were Roberts two horses, which were mere shadows of their
former selves. The animals were so weak that they could stand on their own,
only with an effort.”
“Roberts claims to have
evidence that Jacobson violated his agreement by renting the house for $10 a
month and that he drew rent four times. Despite this he only once paid Roberts
and was on account when Roberts went east.”
Rinehart Jacobson was
charged with petit larceny but in June Judge Diehl ruled that “the lessee of
the property could not commit larceny” and he ordered the prosecution to
institute a civil action, or he would discharge the defendant.
Divorce Papers
Fred Roberts was also
served again with divorce papers in June 1902, as that his wife Margaret
“commenced a divorce suit against her husband, on the grounds of
cruelty.”
The divorce proceedings
stemmed from an incident on April 30, 1902, when Mrs. Roberts said, “her
husband threatened to kill her and cursed her in a vile manner.” Additionally,
she claimed that “he is in the habit of leaving her alone at nights.”
Evidently Fred Roberts
was still seeing Minnie Cooper. In August, the divorce was granted. Mrs. Roberts had named Mrs.
Cooper as “co-respondent” but withdrew the charge and secured the divorce
decree “on the grounds of desertion alone”. After the divorce was final
Margaret Roberts left Salt Lake City to live with her parents in Garrison,
Utah.
Kidnapping
Minnie Cooper was living
in Salt Lake with her parents, when her husband Charlie Cooper made a secret trip to
Salt Lake in May 1902 to “kidnapped her daughter.” On May 28 Charles E, Cooper
appeared in the city and abducted his child. He took the seven-year-old girl by
train back to Pueblo, Colorado. Minnie Cooper went to Pueblo and “instituted
habeas Corpus proceedings for the custody of the child,” while Charlie Cooper
filed for divorce naming Fred Roberts as co-respondent.
A verdict was rendered
for Mr. Cooper declaring Minnie guilty only of indiscretion. However, the child
was placed in a third party’s custody until resolution could be finalized on
who would be the custodian parent. In the meanwhile, Charles Cooper left Pueblo
to take a position in a shop in Laramie, Wyoming.
In October 1902 Minnie
Cooper was back in Pueblo, Colorado for the court’s determination of custody.
She wrote to Fred Roberts asking for money to help pay her room and board while
staying in Pueblo. While Minnie claimed she “had not reciprocated the advances
made by Roberts, she had written in her “thoroughly endearing letter” such as
“Well Fred I would give anything if I could but see you and talk to you, as I
have so much to say.”
Seeing her letter as a
sign of encouragement, Fred Roberts left Salt Lake City for Colorado to ask the
“object of his passion” to marry him. A close friend of Minnie Cooper however stated
that she “never did care anything for Roberts but that he dogged her steps
everywhere she went insisting upon marrying her.”
Attempted Murder and Suicide
Fred Roberts arrived in
Pueblo on October 25 and while there, using the name Arthur Edwards, rented a
buggy. On October 29 Minnie Cooper consented to go riding with Roberts “who was
urging her to marry him at once.” She declined, saying she was about to
get free from “matrimonial bondage” and she “did not propose to get into it
again.”
Drawing a revolver,
Roberts threatened to kill her if she did not consent. The woman “grabbed the
weapon from Robert’s hand and threw it from the buggy and when Roberts got out
to recover it, she drove rapidly away and returned home by herself.”
The next day [October
30] when Minnie Cooper was walking on Ninth Street and Santa Fe, Fred Roberts
confronted her and asked her to marry him again. “They met on the street the
next day” and “people who were passing heard “some hot words” between them.
Roberts said that “his wife had divorced him, his business in Salt Lake was
gone and cared only for her.” She “refused to promise” and “he suddenly drew a
revolver from his pocket, declaring that if she would not live with him, she
should die with him.”
He held her tightly and
“quickly pulled his gun, placing the muzzle against the woman’s cheek quickly
fired.” Roberts shot Cooper through the face however at that instant she turned
her head and the bullet lodge in her jaw and not her brain. “Mrs. Cooper was
not fatally hurt.”
Immediately Roberts then
put a bullet through his own head “from the right side, near the ear, which
produced almost instant death. Roberts fell to the sidewalk
dead.:
Although painfully
injured, Mrs. Cooper started for her home and was staggering along the sidewalk
when people went to her assistance.
On 31 October 1902 the
Salt Lake Herald published the headline, “Fred Roberts’ Love Scorned by Mrs.
Cooper of This City, He attempts Double Murder at Pueblo. His sweetheart But
Slightly Wounded- Tragic ending of a Series of Sensational Domestic Episodes
Occurring Here Recently.”
As Minnie Cooper was
recovering, she claimed her relations with Roberts had “never been
anything but proper and that the money that she had asked for was due her for
salary as bookkeeper in his foundry.” She said, “he was a good friend to her,
and she was aware of his infatuation but could not marry him.”
Roberts Funeral
Fred Roberts’ father
came to Colorado from Massachusetts “to make arrangements for the funeral.”
Newspapers reported, “It is probable that internment will be made in
Pueblo. The father says that the dead man’s mother told him not to bring the
body home as their boy had disgraced them. Mr. Roberts says he will go to Salt
Lake to settle up his son’s business.”
Fred Roberts was buried in
plot 26 15 4 in the Roselawn Cemetery also known as Riverview, in Pueblo
Colorado under the name “Frederick Robertson” on 5 November 1902.
Salt Lake newspapers
summarized the attempted murder and suicide by Fred Roberts, Junk dealer of
Second South writing, “The affair was of more than two years standing and
before this tragic ending resulted in the disruption of two homes, several
divorce proceedings and a sensational kidnapping all which are fresh in the
minds of the people of this city.”
Samuel H Willard’s Golden
Gate Drug Store
531 West Second South
Samuel “Sam” H. Willard
was the owner of the Golden Gate Drug store and he sold “Toilet articles,
Perfumes, Cigars, etc. Sample room in the rear.” He resided at this address at
this address in 1899. However prior becoming a proprietor of the drug
store he was more noted as being an locomotive engineer for the Denver &
Rio Grande Western Railroad Company.
No information has been
found regarding the vital statistics for Sam Willard, although he was well
known and a popular figure. He is also not found in any census records to
determine his age or where he was born. He was said to have been working for
the railways since 1860 which suggests he was born in the first half of the
Nineteenth Century.
There is a “C S Willard
working as a miner enumerated in the 1860 census age 24 and a native of
Massachusetts. This man was living a mining camp called Gold Hill in Carson
County, Utah Territory which became the State of Nevada. However, there is no
way to prove a relationship between these records with Samuel Willard.
The first record of
Samuel Willard being in Salt Lake City is in the 1884 city directory employed
as an engineer living at 59 So Fifth [Sixth] West. For him to have been
employed as an engineer he had to have been working for the railroad for
several years.
Sam Willard was a
locomotive engineer for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad when in 1886 he
was injured in a train accident where he was scalded from the steam engine and
lost his left leg. He was the engineer on the first run of an Engine known as “Number
50” which was notorious for accidents and even called a “hoodoo” and “man-killer”.
An article printed in
the Salt Lake Herald on 4 March 1900 about a recent train wreck involving “Engine
No. 50” which killed several passengers, mentioned some of its past accidents.
“The 50 had been in
trouble almost from the first day she ever turned a wheel, and her trouble ran
the gamut of the possibilities in the locomotive disaster line.”
“On her first trip she
left the rail through some pretext or other, with a heavy train of ore and on a
down grade and after some days the wreckers found her in the bottom of the
canyon, the underdogs in a pile of debris that once constituted a train of
cars.”
“They found Sam Willard,
the engineer, with his left leg cooked to the knee where it had been pressed
against the boiler head by the coal pile. Sam was alive and recovered, but Bill
Redding, his fireman had been killed right away. Sam had his leg amputated and
about a year later again appeared for work.”
“It is a strange
coincidence that Sam lost his left leg on the “50’s maiden trip, and lost his
right leg on the same engine on the last trip she ever made on the South Park.
Sam’s last mishap was in a collision where he was about to jump before they
struck, but he was caught in the gangway and his remaining leg was sacrificed.”
“Strange too, but Sam
recovered from this, had sticks fitted to both his stumps and ran locomotives
on the Denver & Rio Grande and the Rio Grande Western until like many
another, he went in the great strike of 1894. Sam is now proprietor of a drug
store in Salt Lake.”
In 1887 he was almost
removed from voters rolls of the Liberty Party challenged by the People’s Party
on the grounds of his being a non-residence
but swore he lived in Salt Lake and was able to be registered to vote.
Sam Willard was
celebrated in a poem printed in the Ogden Daily Standard on 25 June 1889
regarding how he delivered news from Salt Lake City to Ogden in a record
time.
“SAM WILLARD’S RIDE”
Up from the south at
dead of night,
Bringing the editor sad
affright
The startled phone with
a shudder bore.
Like a herald in haste
to the editor’s door
A message brief from
Salt Lake town.
“the train has stopped,
the wires are down,
And The STANDARD forty
miles away!”
And there lay the
specials far away,
Prepared to appear on
the coming day.
Which the good
lieutenant knew full well?
Must reach The STANDARD
tho’ the heavens fell.
And then a special train
was hired.
And not a thought of the
cost inquired.
Sam Willard opened the
throttle wide.
And shouted,” now for a
lightning ride.
To Ogden, forty miles
away!”
There’s a good steel
railroad heading down.
From Ogden to Salt Lake
Town:
And quickly along the
good iron steel
Madly plunged with a
rocket’s speed.
Sparks rose and fell but
all was gay.
With Ogden thirty miles
away.
Sprung from those iron
hoofs thundering north.
The dust like smoke from
the cannon’s mouth:
Sam held her open, and
she plunged along.
singing a loud but
plaintive song:
She spat a stream of
sparks for her mouth.
That reached for miles
away to the south,
With Ogden twenty miles
away.
Under her spurning
wheels the road
Like a foaming mountain torrent
flowed:
And the mile posts sped
away behind
Like a hedge along the
roadside twined:
But look there’s a light
in the distance far.
To which she speeds as a
guiding star:
‘Tis Ogden ten miles
away.
And thus, the news to
The STANDARD came:
And so, the trip we give
the fame:
Placing thus Sam
Willard’s ride
Along with Sheridan’s
side by side:
Showing The STANDARD is
ever ahead.
While other papers are
dying or dead.
And we know our readers
all will say.
When we get left ‘tis a
chilly day
Even if forty miles
away.
The Standard mentioned
Sam Willard again when it announced that the narrow-gauge track between Ogden
and Salt Lake City had been replaced with a standard gauge which allowed all
trains that had used Ogden as a hub to continue directly to Salt Lake.
On 19 October 1889, the
Ogden Semi-Weekly Standard wrote: “All our readers know Sam Willard, engineer
of D & R.G. No. 20, who Bennett, the rustling excursion manager,
immortalized in soul-stirring verse at the time this paper ran its special
trains carrying excursion issue and illustrated edition to Salt Lake City.
Thirty-seven miles in Forty minutes is no snail’s pace for a narrow-gauge road,
a freight engine, and a wooden-legged engineer. But nothing slower would do for
The Standard, and Sam Willard got her there.”
“It is now becomes our
pleasant duty to record that merit in this case has been justly rewarded. From
narrow to standard-gauge is quite a step of itself, and such is the transition
which the little road has undergone since the event above narrated.”
“But our particular
congratulations go out this morning to Sam Willard, ex-manager of No. 20, now
master of No. 111, the first of the great Baldwin broad gauge machines to press
the rails of the Little Giant. He conducted the monster out of her stall in the
round-house last Saturday, put 98 pounds of steam into her lungs; loaded her
bunkers with coal, and tested her temper and played with her moods up and down
the road until, like the obedient child she is, she yielded to the slightest
pressure of his hand.
“She pulled her first
train over the new road on Sunday and neither slacked her stopped nor
complained of her burden. Yesterday morning she was in attendance at the wreck
near Farmington and towered up like a giant among pygmies. She is a sturdy
thing, and she bears a gallant driver. Success, and much of it to them both.”
The City directories from 1890 to 1893 showed
that Willard lived at 536 West Third South
while working as an Engineer for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad,
However because of the Panic of ’93 and the railroad worker strike of 1894 he
opened a drug store within the West Side
Drug Store that was owned by Jim Hegney. The 1894 city directory said he
resided at 540 West on Third South.
In 1894 The Salt Lake
Tribune carried an article about Sam Willard in a section on Railway Notes.
“Old Sam Willard, better known as “peg leg,” that old timer who has been on the
locomotive for thirty-five years [1859] and has been on the right side for
twenty-five [1869] has resigned and opened up the drug store business on his
own account. Sam walks on two artificial limbs, the result of two separate
accidents, and there is no man in railway service in the West who has a larger
circle of acquaintances than he.”
Willard went into
business with Jim Hegney running the West Side Drug Store, but the business
failed and dissolved his partnership to move to San Francisco. In January 1895 Jim Hegney posted the
following notice “Dissolution of partnership of James Hegney and S.H. Willard,
in business known as the West Side Drug Co.”
Willard received a
liquor License after paying in Bond for a location at 1466 ½ Seventh Street in San
Francisco. The San Francisco city directory for 1897 listed him as living at 3154
16th Street where he would have been in 1896. The notation “liquors”
was by his name where an occupation would have been given.
Willard moved back to
Utah when it was reported in 1897, “Old
Sam Willard, formerly a locomotive engineer on the Rio Grande Western, is back
in Salt Lake from San Francisco where he has been an inhabitant for three
years. Sam walks on two artificial limbs, having lost his legs in railroad
wrecks, but his navigation is true enough to escape ordinary notice.”
The 1898 city directory
listed Samuel Willard employed as an engineer, residing at 662 West Second
South but by 1899 had opened a drug store again he called the Golden Gate Drug
Store at 531 West Second South Street in Block 63.
Willard and the Golden
Gate Drug Store were mentioned in an article regarding the death of a railroad
brakeman name James W. Shields who was found dead in a Caboose in the Rio
Grande Western train yard in 1899. A Coroner’s jury brought in a verdict that
Shields had died of natural causes but others who knew him, suspecting marital
problems, suggested otherwise. “Despite the ruling of the coroner’s jury, many
persons are incline to the belief that Shields took his own life. He was in the
Golden Gate drug store on West Second South a good part of Friday evening
[[October 20].
“The proprietor, Samuel
Willard, says that Shield acted very strangely. He gave Mr. Willard a small sum
of money to be handed to a fellow railroader, saying it was a debt he wanted
settled. After leaving the money with Willard, Shield came in and sent out
several times, asking each time if the money had been paid over. About 8
o’clock he came in and found Mr. Willard in the act of handing the money to the
man designated. Shields then went out, pausing a moment at the door, and
looking back as if he would say something, but apparently changed his mind ad
remained silent. That was the last time Mr. Willard saw him.”
The 1900 city directory
listed the Golden Gate Drug Company at 531
West Second South with S. H. Willard as proprietor. In April 1900 Samuel
Willard was mentioned in an article regarding his financial difficulties with
the Wagener Brewing company.
“S.H. Willard’s
Solvency. The Old Railroader’s Embarrassment Is Only Temporary. With reference
to the fact stated in Sunday’s Herald of S.H. Willard’s drug and saloon
business at 533 West Second South Street having been attached by the Wagener
Brewing company to secure a debt of $323.67 on an open account.
“Mr. Willard wished it
known that he has assets of $1,800 in collectible amounts and $1.400 in stock
of goods, while his liabilities do not exceed $800. Mr. Willard further
represents that the brewing company wished on Friday to take a chattel mortgage
on his business, preferring in consideration of this security, to assume all
other liabilities against him, but without notice the attachment suit was
instituted. However, the widely and popularly known crippled old-time
railroader has not yet given up hope that he will soon be in good financial
circumstances again.”
However, Samuel
Willard’s business did fail, and the 1901 city directory does not list the
Golden Gate Drug Store nor Sam Willard. The last mention of the Golden Gate
Drug Store was in 1904 when it was mentioned that letters for the business was left
at the post office.
Samuel Willard was
listed in 1903 as boarding at 660 Cannon, a street that ran from Seventh West to Tenth West between Second
and Third South. No occupation was given for him. Three years later however the
city directory stated he was employed by the American Smelting and Refining
Company located in Murray probably as an engineer as the 1907 stated he was engineer for the America Smelting & Refining Company. He was rooming at 132 South West Temple. The 1908
city directory continued listing Willard as an engineer employed by the American
Smelting & Refining Company but now, he was residing in Murray.
By 1910 Samuel Willard
had moved back to Salt Lake City rooming at 233 West First South. The directory
only listed him being an engineer. The 1911 directory does not list an
occupation for him but only that he was rooming at 62 ½ South Richard Street.
The last known record of
Samuel Willard was in 1912 when he had
moved to Garfield and worked as an engineer
for the Garfield Smelting Company.
Samuel Willard has not been located in census records or in any Utah vital
records. There’s no notice of a death record and he seems to have disappeared
from history after 1912, forgotten.
Chapter Seven
The Forgotten People of
Block 63 and 64
Gilbert and Robert Amos
267 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
The 1894 city directory
listed the Amos Meat Market at 267 South Fifth [Sixth] West although Amos
resided at 264 South Seventh [Eight] West. Robert Amos [1865-1941] was the
brother of Gilbert D Amos [1850-1901] and was a Scottish immigrant who came to
Utah in 1890. His obituary stated that he was a “former butcher” and “lived in
Salt Lake City for 40 years before moving to Los Angeles California where he died
although he was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Not much is known about
Robert Amos as compared to his more noted brother. Gilbert D Amos. In 1893
Robert was admitted to the Caledonian Club, a Scottish fraternal organization
of businessmen. His family residence was 542 West South Street.
The 1895 city directory
did not list his business at this address and by 1896 he had moved to
Ninth North and Twelfth West a portion of his brother’s subdivision development
where he operated a dairy.
His brother Gilbert D
Amos came to Utah ten years before Robert did and opened the “People’s
Meat Market opposite Mayor Jennings’s residence”. It was reported “through his
enterprise and good treatment of his patrons has succeeded in working up a new
business in the stand where so many have failed. Call and see him if you want
the choices fresh meat at lowest prices.” Gilbert was mentioned in 1887
in an advertisement which claimed, “A revelation among butchers. Beef, mutton,
and pork for cash only. Porterhouse and tenderloin steaks 12 ½ cent per pound;
prime roast 12 ½ cents per pound, round steak 9 cents per pound, chick steak 8
cents per pound, boiling beef 6 cents per pound, loin, and legs of mutton
8 cents per pound, chops 8 cents per pound, breast, and necks of mutton 5 cents
per pound, pork chops 8 cents per pound pork roast and sausage 8 cents per
pound. OM all the above a special reduction for cash only with delivery.”
Gilbert Amos became
successful and acquired 62 acres “bounded on the west and northwest by
the Jordan River stands on a high ridge high and dry near Ninth North
Street”. The area was near today’s Rose Park Golf Course.
However, he died a
pauper “forgotten by friends and family” and was a “county charge. “Death
of G.D Amos Succumbed to Bright’s Disease at the County Infirmary.
Gilbert D Amos, the once wealthy butcher, who for several days past has been in
a dying condition at the poorhouse, passed to the great beyond yesterday
morning. Death resulted from Bright’s Disease.”
“ Mr. Amos who in health
was very portly and it was his boast that he was the only man in the country
who could take his collar off over his head without unfastening it, but at the
time of his death he was almost a skeleton.”
“ Amos was a resident of
this city for twenty years or more and leaves a wife, two sons and a brother in
this city. The deceased was about 60 years of age. As yet no arrangements for
the funeral have been made.”
“Opened a meat market on
the corner now occupied by Drueho and Franken’s drug store put all the money he
made into real-estate. His first large investments were in north Salt
Lake, and it was Amos who secured the copper plant for this city by
putting up $100,000 bonus for that ill-fated enterprise . He mortgaged some of
his property for that purpose.
“Afterwards he built
Amos terrace, and some other large investments were marked up to his credit. He
was reputed to be worth no less than $250,000 part of it being left him by rich
relatives in Scotland.”
Some years ago, the capitalist
took to drink, and his fortune diminished rapidly. Last year he was in St.
Mark’s hospital for several months suffering with rheumatism and a complication
of other troubles. His money had given out before this, and he was removed from
the hospital finally to the infirmary where his life is ebbing away as swiftly
as did his fortune.”
“ The doctors stated
last night that he could hardly live forty-eight hours. Amos has two sons in
this city with whom he has not lived for years.”
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map listed this address as part of the Salt Lake Meat Company
building and no one was enumerated as residing in the building in the 1900
federal census.
Martha Bagley
Of the Rio Grande Hotel
In March 1886, Jim
Hegney was mentioned in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper regarding a legal
dispute over the custody of a child living with one of his employees. The piece
was called, “Novel and Peculiar Story of a Mother’s Regard for Her Offspring,
and a Stranger’s Love for it.”
The article contained information regarding a woman named
Laura Olmstead “the wife of F.S. Olmstead” from Shoshone, Idaho, who arrived
“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.
Laura Olmstead was the child’ birth mother, while 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.” Martha Jones-Bagley claimed that the child was
given to her by Laura Olmstead and had “cared for it almost since its birth.”
James Hegney retained a lawyer to “represent Mrs. Bagley’s
interest” and appeared in Judge Charles Zane’s court on behalf of her. A
reporter covering the court procedures stated, “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.”
It was discovered at the hearing that the “adoption papers
were left in Idaho”, which Mrs. Bagley claimed showed her rights to the child.
The hearing then “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
revealed to be invalid, drawn up in a way as to be not binding and legal, by
the attorneys Martha Jone-Bagney had hired in Idaho. “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.”
Mrs. Bagley’s attorney, Major Woods, stated in court, that
“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 real mother, handsome, cool, and collected, sat near
her husband, apparently confident as to the outcome of the case. Nor was she
mistaken.”
A reporter evidently moved by the court’s proceedings
wrote, “One of the most touching sights ever witnessed in the courtroom 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 court then “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.”
“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 courtroom 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,” the hotel
where the Olmsteads were staying.
“Mrs. Bagley was greatly affected at having to give up the
baby on which she had bestowed a mother’s care during the twenty months of its
existence and had come to regard it as her own.”
“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.”
As for the little girl, “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 ate a most hearty meal.”
The Bess Family
The 1880 federal census
enumerated Mrs. Laura Bess [1810-1888] as her living with a 14-year-old granddaughter
in household 257 in the Fifteenth Ward next to her son William H Bess who was
married. The 1884 directory listed Mrs. Laura Bess’ address as 545 West Second
South while her son James L Bess lived at 328 West Third South and her son
Oliver C Bess was a farmer at 791 South Sixth [Seventh] West. Mrs. Bess
died “At her residence in the Fifteenth Ward, Salt Lake City, February 27th,
1888, of paralysis.”
Jim Bess
James “Jim” L Bess
[1832-1912 ] owned the east half of Lot Five and a portion of Lot Six. In
1887 James L Bess sold to Elizabeth Robinson and Lewis S Hills his interests in
the east half of Lots Five and fifty feet by 165 feet of Lot Six for $410 and
moved away.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed a
Wooden one-story building Complex built on the old Bess site that contained
four stores and a dwelling. Attached behind the four stores was a vacant adobe
building that was once James L. Bess residence. The addresses for this complex
were 547 West, 545 West, 543 West 541 West and 539 West Second South. 545 West
through 541 West hand a brick façade.
Billy Bess
William “Billy” Henry
Bess [1842-1907] was a colorful character mentioned often in newspaper
accounts. In an 1897 newspaper article, Billy Bess reported that he crossed the
plains in 1848, “in a year too late to be classed as a pioneer“ and “says that
on that trip he saw more buffalo than sheep.” At the age of 20, in 1862, he
enlisted as a private in the First Utah Cavalry as part of the Indian Wars
under Captain Lott Smith during “the Indian troubles and says he can talk
Indian better than English. Billy gave evidence of this by holding an animated
conversation with a lot of noble red men from Grantsville, much to the surprise
of the aborigines as well as the spectators.”
The 1870 federal census
listed Billy Bess as living within the household of his 60-year-old mother. By
1874 he had married, and the city directory listed him as farmer in the
Fifteenth Ward 15th Ward residing on the south side of Second South
between Fourth [Fifth] West and Fifth [Sixth] West.
The 1880 census listed his household as number
256 in the Fifteenth Ward, living on Second South, married with two children.
He was working as a laborer. In 1887 Billy Best was sued for divorce for not
supporting his wife and his three children and for being “habitual
drunkard and at times very abusive.”
Both Billy Bess and his
brother Jim Bess had issues with alcohol. Both Bess brothers were arrested
several times for being drunk and Billy Bess was mentioned in several incidents
in Saloons located on Fifth [Sixth] West.
In 1888 a newspaper
referred to Billy Bess as “a well-known character” when reporting on his
being arrested by police charged with larceny. “Bess is accused of having
stolen clothing belonging to Martin Lannan, which was sold at a secondhand
store. He claims that it is a case of mistaken identity.” Bess was “able to
prove an alibi and was discharged.”
In 1903 Billy Bess was beaten by an Italian
saloon keeper on Fourth [Fifth] West for not paying for his drinks. “Sylvester
Te Deskio [Tedesco], an Italian saloonkeeper, became enraged yesterday at
William Bess, a patron of his establishment, who ordered drinks that he was
unable to pay for, and administered a severe drubbing to him. Bess was so badly
beaten that he had to have the services of a physician to dress his injuries.
He then complained to the police of the treatment he had received at the hands
of Te Deskio, and Patrolman [Benedict] Seigfus and Bush went to the saloon to
arrest Te Deskio.”
“The Italian was still
in a belligerent mood when the police arrived and when they attempted to arrest
him, he made a rush behind the bar with a club but was forestalled by the
arresting patrolmen. A fierce hand to hand encounter ensured in which the
saloonkeeper fought with separate fury. He was at last overpowered and carried
to the station in the patrol wagon.”
Billy Bess died in 1907
and his obituary read, “Pioneer Crosses the Might Divide- William H. Bess,
Veteran Pony express Rider and Indian Scout, Dead; William H Bess, a veteran of
the Black hawk and Civil Wars, a rider on the pony express, and mail carrier of
the early days, pioneer, and Indian fighter, died at the home of his brother
James L Bess at Granger, November 24, ages sixty-seven years. Mr. Bess came to
Utah in 1848 with his mother, three sisters and two brothers. He was twenty-one
years of age.”
“The spirit of the West
appealed to him, and no undertaking was too dangerous for him to attempt. He
was known as an Indian Fighter here and when the Black Hawk war broke out, the
love of excitement drew him into the army ranks. He was engaged at the time as
a Western Mail Carrier, a position which subjected him to constant danger and
hardship. When the Civil War was threatened, Mr. Bess again returned to the
East and enlisted in the ranks of the Union army. He was wounded in the war,
and up to the time of his death drew a pension. The funeral will be held from
Taylor’s undertaking parlors, Wednesday morning at 10 o’clock. Mr. Bess is
survived by one son and three daughters.”
Ollie Bess
Oliver “Ollie” Cromwell
Bess [1859-1915] was the grandson of Laura Bess. He was enumerated within
household 260, living next to Benjamin Rowland’s family in the 1880 federal
census, which would have been on Block 63. He was known as an athlete for in
1884 when he was 25 years old, he was participating in foot races. “In the
100-yard race at Washington Square yesterday afternoon there were four entries.
Ollie Bess won in about 11 seconds and took the goblet.” “There was a large
attendance of Spectators who were kept in good humor by the efficient endeavors
of the Sixteenth Ward Band.”
Bess was also a baseball
player as a sports article said he resigned from the “Reds” and enlisted to
play with the Fort Douglas team. In 1886 he was a member of the “rough
and Ready” baseball team. These sporting events were held at Washington
Square.
Ollie Bess was a bit of
a rogue as he was in trouble a lot from drinking at various saloons. In
November 1885 he was involved in a “row” with a gang of outlaws at the
Peacock’s saloon located at 228 South First East [State Street]. out.
“Ollie Bess, Willard
Carter, Parley Hill, F. Hurd, and brothers F and B Blackburn were in the
Peacock at midnight when George Hogge a member of the Montana Gang, assaulted
F. Blackburn and a “row occurred” between Bess’s friends and Hogge’s partners
Ed Hall, James Norton, and Tom Jones.
“The parties were
ejected and sometime after met in a Saloon near the Cliff House” at Third South
and Main Street, “where more loud talk was indulged in” and “hot words
followed.”
When Bess, Carter,
and Hill departed around midnight, Ed Hall, James Norton, and Tom James
followed them. After crossing the street at Main and third South Bess stopped
and “the quarrel resumed” with Tom Jones firing two shots from his revolver at
Bess.
“Carter immediately
commenced to return the compliment and emptied six chambers of a revolver at
the man who did the shooting, with effect, it is thought, of hitting him at
least once, as he was seen to limp and exclaim: “I have got it.”
Tom James
having been shot in the thigh was “then dragged by his companions into an alley
at the back of the “Union Block where Dr. Potter was summoned to dress Jones’
injury, while another one “hired a hack from Mark McKimmins stables.” The
wounded man was taken to a room in the Colorado rooming house and the man driving
the hack, on his return, was nabbed by the police after being seen with
“considerable blood on his clothes.”
The police eventually
located the other two men at the Colorado rooming house where Jones was “found
to be badly wounded, having been shot in the right thigh, the 44-cal. Ball from
Carter’s pistol going entirely through his leg and inflicting an ugly wound
from he was suffering greatly.
The three men were from
Montana were arrested and it was discovered that the men had “at a livery
stable quite a number of horses and from all that has been learned of them it
is supposed they are members of a gang of horse thieves or other unlawful
organization.”
George Hogue was also
arrested on “complaint of Ollie Bess charged with assault and battery on F.
Blackburn.” Willard Carter filed a complaint against Ed Hall James Norton
and George Marshall charged with intent to kill.
In Police Court George
Hogue’s charges were dismissed “on motion of the prosecuting attorney, the
evidence all going to show that the complainant had been mistaken in regard to
the identity of the individual who did the mauling.”
However, Carter, Bess ,
and Hill were also arrested and charged with assault with intent to commit
murder. In May 1886 “In Third District Court today [May 5] Willard Carter, was
arraigned on one indictment charging him, jointly with Oliver Bess, and Parley
Hill , with an attempt to murder William Marshall, in November 1885. A plea of
not guilty was entered. Bess and Hill were not present but were notified to
come to court and plead.”
In October 1886,
twenty-seven-year-old Ollie Bess, who lived on Second South near his brother
James, was assaulted in Jim Hegney’s saloon in the Rio Grande Hotel.
“The Case against the
two Hunter boys, charged with having a hand in assaulting Ollie Bess during the
fracas in the D.& R.G. Saloon, Sunday last [October 10] was set for trial
in the police Court yesterday. The two accompanied by several friends and their
attorneys “held an animated discussion in the hallway for nearly an hour”
before attending court. Both pleaded a guilty to a charge of battery on Bess
and at their own request were allowed to make a statement of the affair.”
“Ike Hunter said they
were at Hegney’s saloon near the Denver & Rio Grande, when his brother
became involved in a windy war with Bess. He jumped in to attempt to separate
them when there was a clinch and a scramble, during which Bess received the
injuries that have adorned his person since that time.”
Ollie Bess was then
sworn and said that “there were a number of people in the saloon when the
trouble occurred. It started over a “jangle about doing a trick with a chair.
They were all trying to lift a chair, Ike, Abe, and several others. A man named
Davis was the only one who could lift it and Bess made a remark to that effect
when Ike Hunter jumped him, biting and scratching, during which he came near
gouging an eye out, and biting a thumb off.”
It was evident
that Bess was a very unwilling witness and “he did not desire to prosecute the
Hunters if it could possibly be helped. It required considerable questioning to
draw any of the facts in the case out of him. He supposed it was Ike who
inflicted the injuries, but he did not know –that was what the boys had told
him.”
Henry Moyle, the
attorney for the Hunter brothers asked that the “sentence be made a light
one.” He “made a few remarks and at the conclusion the Judge said that
the limit of punishment allowed in a case of battery was a fine of $99- and
100-days imprisonment. The facts before the court showed that Ike Hunter did
most of the battering. It was unfortunate that such a case should exist. That a
crowd of young men should gather at a saloon on the Sabbath day and create such
a disturbance as had been shown to have occurred.”
The judge stated, “It
seemed to him that a man who would resort to biting as a means of defense was
very much depraved. It was an offense that ordinarily should call for the
severest punishment that the law could inflict, but under the circumstances and
considering the fact that the complaining witness himself did not seem disposed
to prosecute, a fine of $50 would be imposed on Ike Hunter and $25
on Abe Hunter or in default of payment the same number of days on public
works.”
“It was very evident at
the examination yesterday that there is considerably more behind the fracas
than was brought into view yesterday and are those whose are not slow to assert
that had there been a full investigation, Bess would have been found to be in
the deep trouble as either of the others. Be this as it may, however, the whole
affair is deserving of unlimited censure and cannot reflect seriously upon all
concern.”
In November 1886 Oliver
Bess charged with gambling at Nathan Gray’s gambling house and fined $40.
In 1888 he was arrested again for violating the city ordinance in relation to
hack drivers.
Ollie Bess died in 1915
at the age of 56 years, and his obituary read; “Largely attended funeral
services for Oliver C. Bess Jr., who died in Ogden last Friday, were held from
the Twenty-fifth ward chapel in this city yesterday. Mr. Bess was born in Salt
Lake on May 18, 1869 [1859] but for the past twenty -five years had been a
resident of Idaho [Idaho falls] .
“During his young days,
Mr. Bess was a valued member of the famous Red Stockings baseball team of this
city, which won many championships. He was the first member of the team to pass
away and a number of his companions on the team were present at the funeral.”
Samuel Meacham Boyd
558 West Second South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed an adobe one story home at this address. It was 70
feet from the 544 West residence. It was the residence of Samuel Boyd, son of
George W Boyd. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed house to be a one-story
adobe dwelling with a wooden addition behind and a wooden porch that abutted up
to a brick store.
Samuel M. Boyd
[1857-1946] the son of George W. Boyd and Abigail Baldwin Boyd was living in
Tooele County on his father’s ranch at Deep Creek according to the 1880 federal
census. In 1885 he married Polly Egbert [1860-1929] in Salt Lake City
The 1884 city directory
showed Samuel Boyd [1857-1946] as a farmer residing at 544 West Second South
along with his father. By 1888 the city directory listed him at this
address.
in the 1893 Samuel M
Boyd was still employed as a clerk in the city county office residing at 558
West South but must have left employment there by July 1893.
In July 1893, at one in
the morning Samuel Boyd at one time a clerk in the County Recorder and residing
at 558 West Second South mistook his wife for a burglar and shot her.
“The slamming of the
screen door” had awakened Mr. Boyd and he blazed away at the approaching figure
and next instant heard his wife cry out that she was shot.”
A few minutes before Mr.
Boyd and wife here talking and hearing the fire alarm Mrs. Boyd arose in order
to learn the location of the fire. And she was returning to her room Mr. Boyd
awoke and seeing her advancing form and not knowing she had left his side he
seized his revolver and called out “Who’s There and His wife did not answer
promptly, and he discharged the weapon and was horrified to hear a familiar
voice cry out in agony.
The report of the pistol
alarmed the neighbor and Officer Danner being the first on the scene found Mrs.
Boyd on the floor and keeling beside her Mr. Boyd who was almost beyond the
power of speech and action. She was placed on her bed and given in charge of
women friends while the men scoured the neighborhood in search of a physician.
Dr. Marshall was finally
secured and after an examination of the wound he pronounced it serious and
painful but not a dangerous flesh wound. Boyd is almost beside himself
with grief.
The following year in
1897 39-year-old Samuel M Boyd also a “laborer” had moved to 251 Grand Avenue
which still technically in the Fifteenth Wars was located from First
South to Fifth South west of the Jordan River.
In March 1897
George W Boyd sold to Samuel M Boyd the right of way over part Lots Two and
Three block 64 plat A.
The 1899 city directory
showed Samuel M Boyd worked as a teamster for the Crismon and
Jensen coal company and lived at 558 West. In February 1899 Samuel Boyd
transferred to his wife Polly A. Boyd “part of Lot Three, block 64 plat A for $1.
Polly Ann Boyd was an astute businesswoman who was involved with most real
estate transactions after this time.
Another “Boyd Family
Feud” made the Salt Lake newspapers in April 1899 involving Polly Ann
Boyd and her brother-in-law William B Boyd over an easement dispute. “As the
result of family troubles Polly A. Boyd who lives on second South Street near
Fifth [Sixth] has brought suit in the Third District Court against William B
Boyd and others to prevent the obstruction of a right of way which she claims
over the defendant’s land and for $500 damages.” The lawsuit was perhaps
to a one and a half story barn behind the main house.
“The trial of the suit
of Polly A Boyd vs. William B Boyd and Harriet S Boyd to quiet title to a
certain right of way over a piece of land described as a part of lot 3 block 64
plat A, owned by the plaintiff, and situated in Second South Street
between Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth [Sixth] West streets, was begun yesterday
[October 5] before Judge Hiles without a jury. The defendants claim to own the
right of way and are attempting to fence it in and deprive the plaintiff of the
use of it.”
Polly A Boyd hired James
H Moyle, the son of a former neighbor, and Daniel H Wells to represent her and
she won her suit, ”with the decree quieting the easement and right of way
except the part upon which stands defendant’s [William B Boyd] terrace. “
By 1900 the city
directory listed Samuel Boyd residing at 558 West employed as a teamster for
the Citizen Coal Company. However, the 1900 Census listed his occupation
as a “mining man.”
By 1900 Samuel Boyd’s
occupation was that of “mining man” according to the 1900 federal census. In
the 1905 City Directory showed the family was still listed at same address, but
Samuel was working now as a bricklayer. His brothers James K Boyd and William B
Boyd were living at “Boyd Terrace” within the interior of Block 64 working for
the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.
A problem with earlier
surveys on block 64 was mentioned in a 1903 article involving Lot Four
and Lot Three. “A little strip of ground one foot wide and six rods [99
feet] deep was sold yesterday [February 7] , making it the sixth time it has
been transferred within the past few weeks. John Maccono disposed of the strip
to Polly A Boyd and the probabilities are it has found its final ownership for
some time to come. The history of the deed is this:”
“A few months ago, John
Maccono bought from Martha J Baldwin, 22 feet of ground on Second South near
Fifth [Sixth] West, intending to put up a business building. He had it surveyed
by city Engineer Kelsey, who discovered that the property at the east lapped
over 23 inches at the south end and 19 inches at the north. Finding his
building site cut down two feet, Maccono sold the two feet back to Mrs. Baldwin
and bought two feet on the west side of his original purchase.”
“The next discovery made
by Maccono was that a brick wall rested on the disputed strip and
thinking he could use the wall to advantage in putting up his new building,
bought it back and also bought an extra foot at the frontage, giving him 27
feet frontage in all.”
“Another survey was made
about this time, and it was found that the entire half block lapped to the
west, having been laid out by an old survey. There was consternation in the
neighborhood and much shifting about offences.”
Yesterday a compromise
was fixed up between disputants by which Mrs. Boyd agreed to buy the
one-foot strip from Maccono on condition that she might use half the brick wall
now reposing on his ground. The wall has been strengthened and will do its
share towards supporting the building of Maccono. And so, peace reigns.”
In September 1904
John Maccono sold to Polly A Boyd, “through the Home Trust & Savings
Company, a building on West Second South Street, between Fourth [Fifth] ad
Fifth [Sixth] West, the consideration having been $2000.” In October John
Maccono sold to Polly A Boyd also part of Lot Four in Block 64 for
$100.
In 1905 Samuel and Polly
Boyd moved away from Second south to 126 Mead Avenue.
In December 1907 Samuel
Boyd receive a building permit for 556 West Second South for $200. In the same
month James Killis filed an injunction against Polly A Boyd to prevent her from
interfering with a building occupied by him. Killis was renting a building at
562 West Second South and complained that “a building which is being built to
the east, rear ad above their structure interferes” and he asked for $699 for
damages already done. However, Polly Ann Boyd secured a judgment against
Kellis for rental and damages of $285.
In 1908 while other
owners of property in block 64 were selling to the Citizen Investment Company,
Dora Belle Topham’s business venture, Polly Ann Boyd instead chose to just
lease her property. She leased her share of Lot Three for $30,000 claiming
later she had no idea that the land would be part of the Stockade, a red-light
district for prostitution.
The 1910 federal census
showed that Sam Boyd had moved to 126 Mead Street and included in his household
was his wife and two sisters-in- laws who gave their occupation as nurses.
Samuel Boyd stated he was not working as he had his “own income” and that he
owned the house on Mead Street. His income probably came from the lease of his
property to the Citizen Investment Company.
After the Stockade was
closed down, in 1913 Polly Boyd filed a suit against Dora B Topham aka
known as Belle London to recover $5575 she claimed due to her on the
lease.
“A verdict for $7502.95
was given by a jury in the district court yesterday [30 January 1914] in favor
of Polly A Boyd against Dora P. Topham in a suit brought to recover on a lease
involving property in the old “stockade”. The judgment was composed of $5575
held to be due as rent under the lease $488.03 as interest, $547.78 for taxes.
$7.14 as interest on taxes and $875 attorney fees.”
The Utah Supreme Court
however reversed the judgment in September 1915, arguing that Topham’s
use “for purposed of prostitution” was in violation of the terms of the lease
and therefore the lease was rendered void.
Polly Ann Egbert Boyd
died in 1929. “Mrs. Polly Ann Egbert Boyd died Sunday [October 20] at her
residence 126 Mead Avenue” at the age of 69 years. After the death of his wife
Samuel Boyd remained a widower for the rest of his life.
A human-interest story
from April 1932 stated “Man of 75 Keeps Conference Record. A record of
L.D. S. conference attendance that began when he was 3 months old is being kept
unbroken this conference by Samuel Boyd, 76, of 126 Mead Street. He came
with his parents by wagon from his birthplace, Fort Bridger , Wyoming to attend
his first conference when but 3 months old.”
Samuel Boyd left 126
Mead Avenue about 1935 and moved to 634 Edison but after that he moved around
several times probably boarding with others as that he was a widower without
children.
Evidently Samuel Boyd
held onto his parcel on Second South until 1939 when it was mentioned as being
sold. “Leading sale of the week was a two-story business property at 558-560
West Second South where the Booth Fisheries corporation, now located at 347
Pierpont Avenue plans an expenditure in excess of $10,000 for remodeling and
new modern store front. Owned by the Polly Ann Boyd estate the property was
sold through Edwards M. Ashton and company, broker. It is a two-story stricture
50 feet by about 6 1/2 rods [107 feet] deep and has been unoccupied for some
time. The Delaware corporation plans to make its permanent local headquarters
in the building.”
“Samuel Boyd, 90, 34
South Main died Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. in a Salt Lake Hospital following a
lingering illness. He was born March 15, 1855, in Salt Lake City, a son of
George W. and Abigail Baldwin Boyd. He was retired for many years because of
Ill health. He was a member of the LDS Church. Survivors include a sister Mrs.
Mary B Butterworth, Salt Lake City, and a “brother William Boyd , Los Angeles ,
Cal”.
William Blair “C.” Boyd
“locomotive fireman”
547 West Second South
William Blair or
“William C Boyd”, [1866-1950] the son of George W. Boyd, occupied this address
next according to the 1898 city directory. He was listed as working as a
“fireman” for the Rio Grande Western railway residing at 524 West Second South
which was a printing error. He married
Harriet S “Hattie” Mc Bride om 9 February 1889 while living at Little Basin in
Cassia County, Idaho.
In 1896 his father
George W. Boyd sold to him “part of lot 3, Block 64, plat A for $1000. In 1897
“on complaint of Mrs. Frances Lyon, Mrs. Hattie Boyd and her husband, William
Boyd , have been arrested, the former charged with battery upon the person of
Jennie Reich, and the latter with disturbing the peace.”
“A neighborhood row down
in the vicinity of Seventh South and Eleventh East brought William and Hattie
Boyd into Justice Sommer’s Court yesterday [October 15]. William Boyd is
charged with disturbing the peace and Hattie Boyd is charged with battery upon
the person of Jennie Reich. Both pleaded not guilty.”
William Boyd was sued by
his father in 1898 to recover $1500
“money alleged to have been advanced on certain real estate. A sister-in-law Polly Boyd sued William Boyd
in 1899 for a right way passage over property in Lot 3. “As a result of family
troubles, Polly A. Boyd, who lived on Second South Street near Fifth [Sixth]
West has brought suit in the Third District Court against William B. Boyd and
others, to prevent the obstruction of a right of way which she claims over the
defendant’s land for $500 damages.”
“Right-Of- Way Suit.
Boyd Against Boyd on trial Before Judge [Ogden] Hiles. A trial of the suit of Polly A. Boyd vs.
William B. Boyd and Harriet S Boyd , to quiet title to a certain right of way
over a piece of land described as a part of lot 3, block 64 plat A, owned by
the plaintiff and situated on Second South Street, between Fourth [Fifth] and
Fifth [Sixth] streets was begun yesterday [4 October 1899] before Judge Hiles
without a jury.”
“The defendants claim to
own the right of way and are attempting to fence it in and deprive the
plaintiff of the use of it.” Polly Boyd
won her suit.
The 1900 city directory
listed William B Boyd as living at 542 West Second South. In the 1900 federal
census William B Boyd family was also listed at 542 West Second South and an
owner of his home. He was a thirty-one-year-old railroad engineer with a wife,
three daughters and a son. In this census his middle initial was given as
“C”.
In January 1898 William
B Boyd applied for a building permit at 542 West to build “four compartment
brick terrace homes” with “five room in each estimated $2500.” The homes were
called “Boyd Terrace” and were located on a street that was with the interior north
of Second South.
Eventually the homes
that had been built for William B Boyd were by 1910 used as “brothels and dives
where utter lawlessness will prevail.” “The cottages and terraces on the east
side of Boyd’s court 100 feet from the uniform of row of rooms, have been
vacated by former tenants and even now are being transformed into gaudy
brothels. The homelike appearance that formerly prevailed is being wiped out by
the frightful suggestiveness of what is to come.”
In 1910 William Boyd had
moved to Wall Street in Salt Lake and listed his parents as being born in
Pennsylvania and Illinois. There must have been a falling out with his father
‘family as the 1920 he listed his parents as simply being born in the United
States and by 1930 William Boyd had moved his family from Utah, stated while he
was born in Utah, he said his father was born in New Hampshire and mother in
Montana.
An obituary for William
Boyd was published in California. “William C. Boyd Taken By Death. William C.
Boyd, grandfather pf Mrs. Maxine Orsburn and Lavon Lopez, of Wilmington, passed
away yesterday [3 April 1950] in a Los Angeles Hospital. He was 84 years of age
and had been ill for only a short time.”
“In Addition to the two
local residents Mr. Boyd us survived by his widow Harriet and seven children: Claude,
Clarence, and George Boyd of Los Angeles; Pearl Sullivan and Harriett Hansen of
Montebello, Hazel Sadrup of Venice, Ivy Hadley of Lomita, and 21 grandchildren.
The decease was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ , Later Day Saints.
Funeral Service will be held at Pierce Brothers Mortuary in Inglewood.”
The California death
index listed him as “William Blair” Boyd born 6 June 1874 and died 3 April 1950
Mother’s maiden name Baldwin.
Captain Benjamin Pierce
Brown
146 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
Benjamin Pearce Brown
BIRTH
31 Dec 1831
Staten Island, Richmond
County (Staten Island), New York, USA
DEATH
14 Sep 1905 (aged 73)
Salt Lake City, Salt
Lake County, Utah, USA
BURIAL
Salt Lake City Cemetery
Salt Lake City, Salt
Lake County, Utah, USA
One of the earlier
residences of Block 64 was that of Captain Benjamin Pierce Brown [1831-1905].
He was born on Staten Island, New York
and came with his wife Rebecca Webb Brown [1837-1922] and a daughter to Utah in 1860 in the Jesse
Murphy Company where he served as a Captain of Ten. His wife’s obituary stated, “she crossed the
plains by mule team in 1860, settling in American Fork, coming to Salt Lake
seven years later.”
In the 1869 directory of
Salt Lake City, Brown was listed as a farmer living in the Fifteenth Ward at
Fourth [Fifth] West between First and Second South.
According to the 1880
federal census Brown was one of only three families list living on the Fourth
[Fifth] West side of Block 64. His family dwelling was number 111 and his
occupation was given as a “ship carpenter” with a wife and seven children
between the ages of 19 and 4. All his children were born in Utah. His neighbor
to the south was Jasper Conrad at the corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and Second
South and to the north Henry Moore at
the corner of Fourth [Fifth] [Fifth] West and First South.
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed that 146 South was in the northern portion of Lot One. The
home on the property in 1889 was a one-story adobe structure with some wooden
additions to it. with an easement north of the residence west into the interior
of Block 64 that connected with the George W. Boyd easement that went south to
Second South Street. In 1901 Boyd gave a warranty deed to Benjamin P Brown for part of Lot Two Block 64 plat A for $50
that contained this easement.
A Salt Lake Herald
article form 25 December 1889 listed building permits for “The Structures
Raised the Present Year” stating that “over Two Million Dollars in New
Buildings and Additions.” The article listed permits by city wards and Benjamin
P. Brown was listed among those in the Fifteenth Ward. He had a brick residence
built at the cost of $4,000 and a brick store for $500. The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a one-story brick dwelling on the property however the
easement to the north into the interior of Block 64 had been eliminated.
The 1890 city directory
listed Benjamin P Brown him as a farmer and in that year, [1 Jan 1890] “B.P.
Brown 146 South Fourth [Fifth] West brick house, nine-room $3000.”
In August 1895 Benjamin
P. Brown’s wife Rebecca was listed as one of four women delegates from the
Fifteenth ward to the Democratic County Convention. Among the thirteen men were
James Hegney, Thomas P Lewis, Ephraim G Holding, and William H. Chamberlin. At
a meeting of Democratic Women in
September 1895, women from the Second Precinct that were part of the
Committee of One Hundred included Mrs. B.P Brown, Mrs. Ephraim G Holding, Mrs.
Alice Butterworth, and Mrs. Martha Baldwin
The Browns continued to be active in
Democratic politics and in 1900 their home was used as a place where a
Democratic caucus was held.
The 1900 federal census
showed that the home was still the residence of Benjamin Pierce Brown along with his wife and two adult
children. He was still living at this 146 South address in 1902 but by 1904
Benjamin P Brown had moved to Thirteenth South and Tenth East where he died
in 1905 at the age of 74 years. His will
oddly described his property in Block 64 as being in Lot 2 and not Lot 1.
His wife and heirs
sued a man named John F Whittemore over
property Brown owned at 379 West
Augustus Richmond Carter
533 and 531 West First
South
A one-story adobe
dwelling was 80 feet to the east of the home at 545 West according to the 1889
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. By 1898 it had been replaced with a two-story brick
duplex that was 34 feet wide. The duplex had the address of 533 West and 531
West and was a two-story wooden porch was at the back of the duplex. The
1894 city directory listed Augustus R Carter “mining” at this address.
Augustus R Carter
[1849-1935] was reported to be one of the “most prominent men in the booming
city of Salt Lake”. He was born in Belfast, Maine where his father was a ship
captain. His obituary stated, “at an early age came to Utah, where as a
youth he was connected with the construction of the Union Pacific railroad.” He
was also in charge a section of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. “In
Later years he owned and operated mining properties in Park Valley [Box Elder
County] and in Big Cottonwood canyon.”
An article regarding his
campaigning for city council in 1907 stated he “was born and raised in the good
old town of Belfast Maine, the State where all ‘good’ people come from and
migrated to the Western country in 1871, landing in California where he
remained with the ‘native sons’ for nine years, coming to Salt Lake in 1880 as
purchasing agent for the construction department of the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad, a position he held for three years.”
Augustus R. Carter
married Abbie Henderson in 1871 in Maine and as that all of his six children
were born in Maine between 1873 and 1882, either this information was not
accurate, or he made several return visits to Maine.
Further information
conveyed the following, “In Nevada and California, he engaged in mining
enterprises and has been prominent in Utah mining for a for a number of years .
At present [1907] he is in the real estate business.”
In January 1900 Augustus
R Carter was picked as a juror to hear the trail of Capt. Fred Mills for the
killing of John C Melveney. “When the court opened in the morning [January 12]
the name A.R. Carter of Salt Lake was called and twenty-minutes later Mr.
Carter the forty-seventh man drawn, was accepted by both sides and sworn in as
the twelfth juror in the case.”
“Mr. Carter was born in
Maine, has lived in Utah seventeen years, and is engaged in mining. Mr.
Carter was juror in the [Charles] Thiede murder case and also in the Italian
murder case which followed it.” Charles Thiede was found guilty of
murdering his wife in 1896 and hanged. He was “the seventh white man who has
been executed in Utah but the second one hung. The remaining five were shot.”
The 1900 federal census
listed 47-year-old Augustus R Carter as a mining man. The census was taken in
June while he was in Alaska therefore his wife must have answered the census
questions. He was listed as a married man with four adult children living with
him at this address. A son died of Cholera in 1883 in Belfast and a daughter
must have also died young.
Augustus R. Carter
created the Alaska Mining Company to participate in the Alaska Gold Rush. In
March “The Alaska Gold Mining company is the name of a new corporation in
process of formation with a capital of $30,000.”
Carter secured financial
investors from prominent Salt Lake financiers and some of the principals
involved in the company were men who lived in Block 64.
An article about the
formation of the company stated, “Estimates of the cost of the machinery are
big, supplied by Salt Lake and Seattle firms. It was said yesterday [6 March]
that the new company will send over twenty men to the north about the 1st of May.”
“A.R. Carter, manager of
the Alaska Gold Mining Company, organized a short time ago, to operate in the
Cape Nome district, is busy making preparations to go to the far north.”
“Several well-known Salt
Lakers will accompany him and arrangements for the accommodations on a boat
leaving Seattle about May 20 have been closed.”
By the end of the week
there will be a large exodus of Salt Lake citizens towards Cape Nome. Some of
the advance guard has already gone.”
“When last night’s [5
May] Oregon Short Line train pulled out for the north, it had on board A.R.
Carter, who goes to Nome to manage the operations of the Alaska Gold Mining
company, a Salt Lake corporation organized a couple of months ago to work a
group of claims located a year ago by Elwood Madden , formerly of Ogden.”
“Mr. Carter has arrange
for transportation for a party of fifty-Three persons, who will join him at
Seattle in about a week or ten days.”
“His company has ordered
about fifty ton of machinery and supplies so Mr. Carter goes into the northern
camp equipped for operations on a large scale.”
Carter wrote to those
planning to came to Seattle to join him that, “with the present rush for
Seattle it is next to impossible to get waited upon in the outfitting of stores
there, and prices are also on the climb.” “His advice therefore to all who
intend to go from here is to buy everything they need and ship it to Seattle.
They will then know what they are buying and will have the satisfaction of
being able to cease worrying as well as being money ahead.”
Interest in the Alaskan
venture was significant enough for the Salt Lake Herald to send a special
correspondent to write his impressions. “They’re Off For Nome- Utah Contingent
Makes a Start From Seattle. Hope to a High Pitch- Capt. Carter’s Crowd Leaves
On the Tacoma- Salt Lake and His wife Get Separated in the Confusion Incident
to Sailing- Horsefall Disguises Himself in Woman’s Attire- All in Good
Spirits.”
“(Special
Correspondence) Seattle Wash. May 21- Last night terminated the anxiety of the
Utah contingent bound for Cape Nome. The steamer Tacoma, which was booked to
leave May 25, was delayed five days mostly on account of freight she was taking
aboard, and 1,900 tons is the admitted weight of her cargo.
“Five hundred and fifty
individuals, including many Utahns, took passage on the ex-transport and no
doubt, now that she has been headed for Nome in about twelve hours, every heart
is experiencing the rapture hope of fabulous riches to come.”
“The Tacoma could only
take ten of our horses, and we have yet several thousand feet of lumber, a
number of scrapers, some machinery and pipe, hay and grain which will go
forward on the Victoria about Sunday.”
“I was left here by Mr.
Carter to look after the forwarding of the balance of the freight and the
bringing through on the Farallon of eight horses.”
“Of all the busy men in
Seattle, I do not think any were more rushed for the last week than A.R.
Carter. He had lost, through some sickness, the services of Elwood Madden, and
was compelled to be up day and night. But he weathered it and when I shook
hands with him at 2 o’clock this morning as the Tacoma backed from the wharf,
he was as well, happy, and cheerful as ever.”
“Mr. Madden was much
better and assured me he would he perfectly well by the time the golden shores
are in sight.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Buck,
although thoroughly in the swim at the last accounts, had not been able to find
each other on the vessel. They either got in the wrong staterooms or the
steamship company made a serious error in numbering their tickets and berths.
But some of the boys said they would assist them to find each other before they
go to Nome.”
“The Seattle Post
Intelligencer records as one of the passengers, ‘Mrs. Horsfall’. As nothing was
seen of Engineer Horsfall for the last day or two, some good reason no doubt
has prompted him to don a “Mother Hubbard’. The disguise was certainly
complete, but with the experience some of the boys have had, I think his
identity will be revealed before he has given a half dozen steps in the skirt
dance.”
“Slim Pilgerrim, of the
Rio Grande Western does not seem to have a care in the world, and after looking
at the gold sands from Nome and the piles of nuggets displayed in jewelers’
windows here, bought an extra dozen dust bags.”
“Mr. Carter could
have taken many contracts here to move fright at Nome at $20 per hour with his
teams, but declined all, saying his machinery is the first consideration.
Immense stores of provisions and material are being shipped, and there cannot
be any shortage in Nome hereafter.”
“As to the value of this
Alaska rush to Seattle, I will cite one instance; Hotel room was scarce and ten
of us were given eight cots and one double bed; 75 cents each was the price,
and at this rate, one room turns into the hotel’s treasury $225 per month.
There are hundreds of hotels all doing business similarity, and reaping a like
harvest.”
The harsh realities of
Alaska began to fade the Utahn’s “gold fever” and in Salt Lake newspapers
headlines proclaimed, “Nome Is A Big Fake” with many more articles from
disappointed adventurers. One man stated that Cape Nome was “the most
stupendous fake ever perpetrated upon the people of this or any other
country.”
Ships coming into Nome
were held in quarantine for days as there were outbreaks of smallpox and
typhoid. Sixty-four ships were counted on the beach at one time, and it was
said “Smallpox and typhoid fever cases were plentiful in camp on July 1.”
In July when the
Utah Contingent was in Alaska, there were between 20,000 and 30,000
people in Nome. However, “the boom was well-nigh onto a collapse and already
thousands of people who had hopes of coming home with a goodly share of golden
treasure began to realize the truth, that there was nothing for them there.”
The sad truth was the fact that “everything worth having was taken up before
the boom came on.”
Carter being a mining
man was among those who was disappointed in the prospects of an Alaska Gold
Mine. “Under the date of Cape Nome July 3rd, Joseph Lippman writes
of discouraging features there and adds; Mr. A.R. Carter, who represents a Salt
Lake syndicate, is thoroughly disgusted with the country and would be glad to
be back in Salt Lake. He does not hesitate to say that if he could sell his
outfit for the amount which his backers invested, he would very gladly accept
the money and quit.”
Augustus R Carter left
and had returned to Salt Lake City by September. “Carter Returns from Nome-
Manager Alaska Mining Company At Home. Thinks the Northern Country Will Yet
Produce some Good Mines. But He didn’t Strike Any.”
“Gradually the Utahns
who went to seek fortune in the sands of Cape Nome are drifting back home the
latest arrivals are A.R. Carter, his two sons Harry and Morris; Ed Bell, George
Mullen and William Hausiam, who reached Salt Lake yesterday. William Pilgerrim
who came with the party as far at Seattle, is expected here this morning
[September 2]”
“Mr. Carter left Nome
last Spring, as manager of the Alaska Gold Mining company composed largely of
Salt Lake Citizens. He went into camp with the finest outfits on machinery that
landed in the diggings, but on account of the delays that unfortunately came
up, the plant was only operated for a limited time before Mr. Carter
sailed for home.”
“The company owns a
large group of claims: assessment, work for the year had to be done, for that
reason the ground could not be prospected to bedrock, consequently the value of
the territory was not fully determined.”
“But everything was put
in shape for next year’s work, and before the country freezes up the belongings
of the corporation will be housed in the buildings erected recently and Charley
Horsfall and Ben Pierson will remain in charge during the coming winter.”
“The management was
turned over temporarily to P.A. Snell, who will return to the states with W.C
Buck and wife, and probably R. H. Nichols of Murray about Oct. 1. Mr. Snell
will bring with him the first clean up from the company’s plant.”
“While Cape Nome had
been a great disappointment, Mr. Carter is still of the opinion it will make
good camp after the bulk of the people leave. Mr. Carter estimates that
fully $300,000 worth of machinery was landed on the beach which was never set
up. In most instances the men who brought it in had no title to ground to put it
up on.”
Backs in Utah, Carter
continued to be involved in mining and in 1901, two of the Carter’s daughters
were married at the home at 533 West. “A most interesting double marriage was
solemnized last Thursday [5 June 1902] at the home of Mr. and Mrs. August R.
Carter of 533 West First street, when their daughter Ethel became the bride of
A.H. Dutton, and their daughter Emma K was wedded to A. W. Leggett of Detroit,
the dual ceremony being performed by the Rev. Mr. Perkins of St. Paul’s
church promptly at 8 o’clock.”
“The four groomsmen were
Maurice Carter, Henry Carter, Harry Morrison ad Alan Lovey. The ceremony was
performed in the rear parlor, which was beautifully decorated. A canopy of
roses and smilax [a decorative climbing foliage used by florists] had been
erected for the bridal party and all around were palms, roses, and cut flowers
while the portieres [curtains hanging across a doorway] were tastefully draped.
The dining room was also very prettily arranged, the table with roses on a Battenberg
center piece and rose-studded smilax extending from the chandelier to the
four corners of the table, making a very effective scene. About thirty of the
most intimate friends were present at the informal reception following.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Dutton and
Mr. and Mrs. Leggett left later for a trip of a fortnight, to return and be
home for the summer at 533 West First South Street. Both the brides are
beautiful girls and they looked unusually so last Thursday evening in their
gowns of heavy white tone cloth trimmed with Irish point lace. Each carried a
shower bouquet of bride roses and maiden hair ferns.”
Augustus R. Carter ran
for city council in 1905 on the America Party ticket but later lost his seat to
L. J. Wood in 1907. While on the council though, he was referred to as
being “counted as one of the leaders of the Gentile portion of that august
body.” The 1907 city directory listed Carter as a Council man representing the
civic Second Ward living at 533 but in 1908 the directory listed him as “rooming”
at 531 West First South.
By 1910 Carter had moved
away from Block 64 altogether but lived in Salt Lake City for most of the
remainder of his life. He left Salt Lake City in 1934 and his obituary stated
that he died 26 June 1935 at the age of 86 at his home in Piedmont California.
He was mentioned as being a “former resident of Salt Lake City, and well-known
Utah mining man.”
Henry Enoch Carter
General of Utah’s Industrial
A man named Henry Enoch Carter, [1847-1921], later
known as “General Carter”, became the leader of the Utah’ “Commonwealer movement.” Henry E. Carter received the title
of general “during the troublesome days of the ‘Industrial army’ craze in 1894,
when unemployed men throughout the country formed themselves into companies and
began a march to Washington.” Carter organized and led the mostly unemployed
single men gathered in the city, “in an attempt to travel to Washington to air
their grievances.”
Henry E Carter was a native of Penobscot County, Maine but
at a young age he moved with his family to Pepin County, Wisconsin. During the
American Civil war, as a teen, he fought for the Union in Company E of the 37th
Wisconsin Infantry. After being discharged, Carter then married Adeline “Ada”
Clark in 1865. The couple had three sons, James Burton Carter [1867-1873]
Rutherford Burchard Carter [1877-1947] and Perl Henry Carter [1885-1964].
The three daughters were Minnie Bell Carter Terry [1869-1941] Glenora [Lena]
Amy Carter [1874-1897] , and Gracie Carter [1880-1891].
The family moved from Wisconsin to Minnesota where H. E.
Carter’s family was enumerated in the 1880 Federal Census. He was living in St.
Paul and was a carpenter by trade. The 1885 Minnesota state census listed the
family of H E Carter as living at Howard Lake in Wright County with five
children, three daughters and two sons.
Henry E. and Ada Carter’s daughter Glenora who went by the
name “Lena Carter, at the age of sixteen years, Lena Carter was said to have
married a man in Minnesota but as soon as a baby girl was born in May 1890 ,
Ruby J. Stansbury, the couple separated,” and her mother raised “the
little child the result of the unfortunate alliance.” It is more likely
that the child was born out of wedlock.
Sometime, between May 1890 when their
granddaughter Ruby Stansbury [1890-1976] was born in Minnesota and June 1891
when their daughter Gracie Carter died in Salt Lake City, the Carters
moved out west to Utah.
The 1892 Salt Lake City Directory only listed “Mrs. H.E.
Carter” as living in the western outskirts of Salt Lake City near the Jordan
River. Henry E. Carter’s whereabouts was unknown. Perhaps the couple had
separated, as that Adeline Carter was listed as a “tailoress” for “Henry Gabel
the Tailor” who owned a shop at 65 West Second South, although the directory
stated Gabel was a resident of San Francisco, California.
Ada Carter’s residence was given as being between Tenth
[Eleventh] West and Eleventh [Twelfth] West and between Third South and Fourth
[Fifth] South “along the Jordan River.” Rutherford B. Carter, her 15-year-old
son, was listed in the 1892 directory as boarding at “Riverside Ave and 3rd
South” evidently with his mother. Today this area is now considered within the
Poplar Grove community of Salt Lake City.
Lena Carter became a tragic figure leading a life of
prostitution which would keep the Carter family well into the public purview
long after her father’s involvement with the Industrial Army ended.
By 1893 Henry E. Carter had rejoined his family and was
listed as a carpenter, living at “Riverside Avenue in the Golden Park
Addition”. His son Rutherford Carter was still listed as a boarder in a
residence on “Riverside Avenue and Iola Avenue”. He was now 16 years old and
was employed as a clerk for the Rio Grande and Western Railroad.
The 1894 Salt Lake City directory also mentioned “Henry E.
Carter” as being a carpenter, residing at 397 Riverside Avenue in Salt Lake
City. However, some newspaper accounts stated he resided at on Fourth [Fifth]
South and Fifth [Sixth] West streets, which was down a block from the Rio
Grande Western rail yards and depot.
Salt Lake City’s Commonwealers
Henry E. Carter attended a mass meeting of Salt Lake
Commonwealers in 1894. These men who attended Utah’s organizational meeting
called their group the “Industrial Army” and Carter was elected their
“general”, due to his oratory skills. He was chosen to lead and organize the
hundreds of men who were swarming into Salt Lake City.
The year 1894 was a particularly hard year for Salt Lake
City as the rest of the nation. The Panic of 1893 had set in, and many of the
men who had relied on employment with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad
found themselves out of work.
Politically, the economic depression produced
societal upheavals in Salt Lake City which contributed to the demise of the
progressive Liberal Party in Utah of which the voters of the Rio Grande
District were strong adherents. Additionally, thousands of desperate, displaced
men were descending upon Utah from the Pacific Coast states, seeking train
passage for the march on Washington D.C. The times were so desperate that
unemployed laborers organized to go the nation’s capital in a highly publicized
“March on Washington", to demand relief in the form of a jobs program from
Congress.
As that in Utah, Ogden was a hub for the Union Pacific and
the Rio Grande Western a hub in Salt Lake City, Commonwealer in organized
“armies” descended on the territory in the Spring of 1894.
The march on the nation’s capital of unemployed men
was spurred on by a “self-made Ohio businessman” named Jacob Coxey. Coxey
wanted the “unemployed masses” to be a “living petition” to Congress. These
thousands of men who made up what was known as “Coxey’s Army”, or more
formally, the “Commonwealth of Christ Army”, shorten to “Commonwealers”.
This was the first time that a major protest movement
demanded that Congress provide jobs and relief for working men. The
Commonwealers eventually made it all the way to the nation’s capital but with
little effect, as they were seen by Grover Cleveland’s administration,
industrialists, and the wealthy as socialists and anarchists.
Thousands of unemployed men from the Pacific and Western
States descended on Utah to ride the rails from Ogden and Salt Lake City
eastward in the attempt to join the protest march. As those men were determined
to make their way east, but for the most part, had no way to pay for
transportation over the railways, many resorted to commandeering empty freight
cars or what the railroad owners called “stealing a ride”.
Many of Commonwealers in Utah were not from Salt Lake City
but were “strangers” according to newspaper accounts. They were reported as
having not been in Salt Lake for more than a few months, “many of them only a
few weeks”, and thus were seen as a drain on the resources of the city which
was already suffering from an economic depression caused by the Panic of 1893.
In Utah an “Industrial Army” of unemployed men was
organized in the spring, determined to join their fellow marchers who were
nationally headed for Washington D.C.
The Provo Daily Enquirer newspaper reported on the newly
organized “Industrial Army” on 19 April 1894. The paper wrote that General
Carter had “called attention to the rules which everyone would be required to
sign” as that the army was not to be viewed as “tramps”. He said, they
were to be “genuine seekers of work, not men who went to seek work and hoping
they would never get it.”
Carter also said he had hoped to raise an army of a
thousand men from their ranks, men who would make their way to the nation's
capital to demand employment relief. He reportedly suggested that “all single
men should join, and as many of the married as could leave their families
provided for.” Carter never achieved his goal of a thousand men, but he
did manage to recruit some three hundred men to actually join the “Industrial
Army”.
General Carter was able to “convince and persuade” Utah
politicians and businessmen to donate money and food relief for the transport
of the unemployed men. Carter had written a request, which was published
in local papers, saying “To the general public we appeal to you in the interest
of the Industrial Army now organized in your midst for aid in money, clothing,
shoes, and blankets. Anything useful will be thankfully received. Donations
will be received at State Road.”
Money and food relief, for the unemployed men waiting for
transport, was donated by Salt Lakers sympathetic to the cause. Even Salt Lake
Mayor Robert Baskin gave the “army” $200 out of city funds while many others
also contributed funds and supplies. It was likely that Jim Hegney
and other Liberal Party businessmen of the Rio Grande District also contributed
money. They were also probably anxious and concerned regarding the amount of so
many discontented single young men idle in the city. Certainly, the fear of increase
crime motivated the desire to remove the unemployed transients away from the
city by many business and civic leaders.
With the announcement of the formal organization of the
Industrial Army in April, hundreds of men began arriving in Salt Lake. Reports
filtered into Salt Lake that “hordes of Commonwealers” were on the move east
from Washington, Oregon, and California headed for Utah.
The Union Pacific Railway however refused to allow the
“Commonwealers” to ride for free in their empty box cars which was an obstacle
to westerners. The railroad even called upon various western state home
guards to enforce the restrictive access to their property. When they did, some
riots broke out in Washington State and Idaho. In Boise, Idaho, it was reported
that 149 “Commonwealers” were captured by law officers while trying to ride the
Union Pacific rails for free.
Two companies of army infantrymen, stationed in Green
River, Wyoming with two more at Pocatello, Idaho, tried to keep the
Commonwealers from entering Wyoming and “stealing rides” using the Union
Pacific rails that ran through the state. The effect of these shows of force
however had those Commonwealer who had reached Ogden, “turning south to Salt
Lake City” to “try to go east over the Rio Grande Road into Colorado.”
Henry E Carter in an effort to avoid such conflicts, tried
to negotiate with the Rio Grande railroad officials, as well as city officials,
to provide transportation for his army, and to assure “that plenty of
provisions would be supplied” for the hundreds of men who wanted to travel to
the nation’s capital where they would join tens of thousands of others like
minded men “to present their grievances to the federal government”.
The Rio Grande Railway officials in Salt Lake, like the
Union Pacific owners, were fearful that the desperate commonwealers would
“steal rides” in their box cars, as well as attempt to steal a train. The use
of Rio Grande freight cars for transportation was also denied to the
Commonwealers.
In Salt Lake City a temporary camp for the hundreds of
Commonwealers was set up at “Pioneer Square” in Block 48. Additionally, many of
these transient men were camped near the Rio Grande and Pacific Union rail
yards. Numerous accounts of petty crime were reported occurring on Second
South. Soon the sheer number of indigent men in the city soon became
troublesome to state and local officials.
The Salt Lake Herald-Republican newspaper reported several
accounts of arrests of Commonwealers, who ended up the city police court for
“stealing rides”. One dated 18 May 1894, reported that “Eighteen eastbound
commonwealers from the Pacific Coast were arraigned on the charges of trespass
and stealing rides. They had been rounded up early in the day by Officers [John
J.] Roberts and [Benedict] Seigfus in the northwestern part of the city. All
were released upon their promise to leave the city at once.”
In May 1894, some frustrated men of General Carter’s Army,
“marched out of the city and made the first stop at Murray. The following day the
march was resumed and finally Lehi was reached.” There in Lehi Utah, a Union
Pacific train, was “commandeered by a band of California Commonwealers”, and
also a Rio Grande Western train was hijacked by a group of commonwealers who
were camped at Thistle in Spanish Fork Canyon.
The Union Pacific train was stopped at Provo, and the
commonwealers hijackers were placed under arrest. General Carter was also
arrested, along with his fellow “officers”, as the railroad men had convinced
law officers that somehow Carter and the others were responsible for the
actions of these men.
While General Carter had nothing to do with the
hijacking of the trains, thirty-five indictments were issued against him and
“members of the Carter band of Commonwealers some charged with train stealing
and others with riot” .
Henry E. Carter’s arrest was considered to be an outrage
and in the courtroom of Samuel A Merritt, Chief Justice of the Utah Territory
Supreme Court, “every seat and all the available standing room was occupied,”
in support.
Although Carter was found not guilty of having anything to
do with the Lehi hijacking, Utah leaders, frustrated with the antics of the
Commonwealers had Carter, as leader of the Industrial Army, convicted of
“contempt of court.” He was fined $100 and sentenced to five days in the state
penitentiary even though nineteen of his men were given “various lighter
sentences”.
Eventually Carter’s Industrial Army was provided with
enough funding to be transported as far as Denver mainly in an effort to get
them out of state. Funds ran out in Colorado however, and even with pleas for
more funding by General Carter, the Industrial Army disbanded. “This
terminated the General’s military career” and he then “devoted himself to his
trade.”
Many of these disillusioned men of the Industrial
Army then resorted to becoming “hoboes and tramps” in the western states.
Newspapers stories for the next ten years were filled with accounts of the
criminal activity of “tramps” and some even committing homosexual “outrages”.
Carter sunk back down into anonymity for a while and the
1896 city directory listed him at 337 Riverside Avenue working as a carpenter.
Only the notoriety of his daughter Lena Carter also known as Mamie Evans kept
his name in the newspapers.
In September 1899 Carter was being considered for a
candidacy for the city Council “ “Second Precinct Candidates. H.E. Carter the
carpenter and George Canning the sheep raiser, are being pushed to the front of
the council by the Republicans of the Second Precinct. Republicans are not
climbing over each other to get on the ticket in the Second Precinct.”
Henry E Carter and his wife Ada were enumerated in the 1900
federal census as living at a home they owned at 337 Riverside Avenue in Salt
Lake City. Ada Carter stated she was the mother of six children with only
five living. Henry Carter gave his occupation as a “house painter” and included
in their household were their youngest son 15-year-old Pearl Henry Carter and
their granddaughter 10-year-old Ruby J Stansbury.
The Carter Family left Salt Lake City about 1908 and moved
to Malheur County Oregon where they were enumerated in the 1910 federal census.
He was listed as a farmer and owned his own farm. Adaline C. Carter
stated she was the mother of only three children , 2 living. Their20 year old
granddaughter Ruby Stansbury was still living with them. By 1917 the family
left Oregon and moved to Ogden Utah where his son Rutherford B Carter was
living .
However, two years later the 1919 Ogden City Directory
stated that H.E. Carter r and his wife had moved to Caldwell, Idaho where he
was a Nazarene Church minister in that community.
The 1919 city directory listed Rev. Henry E Carter
(Nazarene) and Adeline C Carter living at 206 Everett in Canyon County, Idaho
He was listed in the 1920 federal census still a resident
of Caldwell, Idaho but he gave no occupation for himself. He died, in
obscurity, of influenza in 1921 at the age of 75 and was buried in the Canyon
Hill cemetery in Idaho.
“Died Monday [October 31] H.E. Carter. 75 years of age died
Monday at the home of his daughter Mrs. W.A. Gainey, 215 Filmore Street. He was
one of the first Nazarene preachers who came to this part of the county. He
made his home with his daughter. No arrangements for the funeral have been
made.” Actually Mrs. W.A Gainey was his granddaughter Ruby J
Stanbury.
Ada Carter lived almost ten years longer remaining in
Caldwell County, Idaho and dying in 1931 of Influenza at the age of 83
years.
Thomas Eigle “Railroad Carpenter”
558 West Second South
From 1895 through 1896
Samuel M Boyd moved from the home at this address and a carpenter named
Theodore Eigle, [1853-1937] employed by the Utah and Nevada Railway, replaced
him at this residence. He was a German emigrant who claimed Austria and
Czechoslovakia as his birthplace although his obituary stated he was born in
Bohemia once part of the Austrian Empire and after World War I part of
Czechoslovakia.
He came to Kansas in the
mid 1870’s and joined William Cody’s Buffalo Bill’s Combination troupe in 1874.
Eigle left the troupe and married in Atchison, Kansas in 1882, later moving to
Dodge City where the couple had five children there before moving to Utah. They
had two more children while in Salt Lake.
The 1892 and 1893
city directories listed Theodore Eigle as a railroad car repairman for the Utah
and Nevada Railway residing at 769 West Fifth South. In 1894 he was listed as a
carpenter residing at 111 Rio Grande which was located “from Sixth [Seventh] to
eighth [Ninth] between fourth and Fifth South.
By 1895 the family
had relocated to Second South where they rented the home of Samuel M. Boyd. In December
1895, a fire broke out behind this home. “At 11 at night, an alarm was
rung in from Box 341 on Fifth [Sixth] West between Second and Third south. The
West Side department responded and handled the blaze unaided. Chief Devine went
down from the central station but took no apparatus.”
The fire was in a frame
barn in the rear of the residence of Theodore Eigle on the north side of Second
South near Fifth [Sixth] West. The property belongs to Samuel
Boyd. Mr. Eagle had two horses and a cow in the barn but got them out in
safety. The fire was confined to the roof and hayloft and the damage will not exceed
$100. It is thought the place was set on fire, as the family were asleep when
it broke out and there was no fire near it when they retired.”
The 1896 directory
listed him as a carpenter for the Utah and Nevada railroad still residing
at 558 West Second South however the 1897 city directory had the family living
at 748 West first South as a car inspector. The family must have moved when
Samuel Boyd moved back to this home.
The 1900 federal census
enumerated Theodore Eigle’s family residing in Tucker, in Utah County, where he
gave his occupation as a Railroad car inspector. Tucker started as a simple
railroad junction, between the main line of the Denver & Rio Grande Western
railroad near the east end of the Spanish Fork River. . When a station was
built here to house the helper engines used to push freight trains over Soldier
Summit,[ it quickly grew into a town with a population of 500, called Clear
Creek which had a boarding house, company store, and saloon. By 1900 its name
was changed to Tucker.
Between 1900 and 1910
the family moved back to Salt Lake City where Eigle and three of his grown sons
continued to work for the railroad. A married daughter died of the
Spanish Influenza in 1919.
Eigle died in the home
of a son in Chicago, but the Salt Lake Tribune carried an obituary for him as
he still had an offspring still living in Utah.
“Theodore Eigle., 88,
retired railroad an, who was a western frontiersman and member of the original
Buffalo Bill troupe which toured the country in the early 1870’s died Sunday
[11 July 1937] at 10 a.m. of causes incident to age, at residence of a son
Walter Eigle, in Chicago, according to word received by his daughter, Mrs.
Theresa Koehler, in Salt Lake City.”
“Mr. Eigle was born
January 10, 1849, in Bohemia. When 18 years old, he came to the Unites States
settling in Atchison, Kansas. Three years later he moved to the frontier
roundup town of Dodge City, Kansas where he joined the Buffalo Bill troupe.”
“For four years he
remained with the company, playing various musical instruments. Returning to
Atchison he became director of a dance orchestra.”
“He married Christina
Gueswell in 1883. Although it was but an outpost, they moved in 1885 to Dodge
City to make their home.”
“
After five years there,
they moved to Ogden Utah where he was employed by the Denver & Rio
Grande Western Railroad mechanical department. The following year he was sent
to Helper and Soldier Summit, returning to Salt Lake in 1895.”
“The following 30 years’
active service in Salt Lake for the railroad until his retirement in 1925. His
wife died in 1914. Except for a short period spent with Mr. and Mrs. Koehler in
California, he remained in Salt Lake City. About a year ago he went to Chicago
where he had since lived with his son.”
“Surviving are four
sons, Walter Eigle, Chicago, Benjamin Eigle, superintendent of the E.I. du Pont
de Nemours & Company plant in Buffalo, NY, W.N. [William Nathaniel]
Eigle, general freight agent for McCormick steamship company at Los Angeles,
and E.F. [Ernest Frank] Eigle, Los Angles; a daughter Mrs. Koehler of Salt Lake
City, six grandchildren and a great grandchild.”
“Funeral services and
burial will be conducted in Salt Lake City, relatives here said
Sunday.”
William Fidkin
122 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
William Fidkin
[1848-1921] was carpenter, contractor, and builder who did “All
Kinds of Woodwork”. He and his wife were Mormon Coverts who emigrated
from England in 1874 to Salt Lake City.
In 1881 William Fidkin
bought from Henry Moore a parcel 2 ½ rods [42 feet 3 inches] fronting Fourth
[Fifth] West, commencing 8 ½ rods [140 feet 3 inches] south from the Northeast
corner of Lot eight for $400. At the same time Thomas P. Lewis purchased
the parcel to the south. Their two homes were built within a few feet of each
other.
In 1882 William was the
steward for the Vigilance Hose Company No. 4 where he was a volunteer fireman.
He was also athletic as at the age of 35 he was a member of the Salt Lake Team
of the Cricket Club which he played for over a decade. As a wood worker
he even made his own cricket bat.
“A Cricket bat has been
made by Mr. Wm Fidkin of this city from native willow, cut near Farmington; the
bat was used in the cricket match yesterday [30 March 1885] and stood more ‘handling’
than the eastern bats. This is the first one made in Utah and Mr. Fidkin is
deserving of credit for the enterprise.” In 1893 he was captain of the Cricket
Club
1888 Carpenter
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed Fidkin’s home to be a one-story brick dwelling. The south
wall of the building abutted up to the property line of 124 West where it was
only a few feet from the neighboring adobe brick home on that property.
Prior to 1898 several additional rooms were added to the home. A building
permit was issued to William Fidkin for a brick addition to his home costing
$125. A one-story wooden house was built at the rear of the property after 1889
and before 1898 that was given the address of 122 ½. It was probably built by
1891 as that Edward E. and Hattie J Hennefer resided at this address
until 1892, most likely in the home in the back of the lot when their one and
half year-old son died.
“In this city,
March 4th, 1891, Raymond W Hennefer, son of Edward and Hattie j Hennefer.
Funeral March 6th, at residence of parents No. 122 South Fourth [Fifth] west
Street. Friends of the family respectfully invited.
Mr. and Mrs. Fidkin only
had three children and tragically two of them died within two months of one
another also in 1891, a 6-month-old daughter named Ella and an 18-year-old
son named William Joseph Fidkin, who was their only son. He died of
peritonitis. William Fidkin’s oldest daughter Leah Rebecca Fidkin,
[1872-1952] born in England, was their only surviving child and she married George
Savage Ashton in 1893.
The Fidkin family had
only one article in the newspaper regarding having to go to court. In 1896 a
Thomas White made a complaint against Mrs. Alice Fidkins for having “a
dangerous “dog in her keeping.
“Mrs. Fitkins [Fidkin] was
brought before Judge [David H] Wenger yesterday [January 31] for keeping a
dangerous dog. It appeared from the evidence that the dog was a ferocious
brute, barking and snapping at everyone who passed.”
“His Honor fined Mrs.
Fitkins a dollar, and ordered the dog killed. Mrs. Fitkins burst into tears and
said the dig had always been faithful to her. The judge said he realized
the fact, but as the public must be protected the dog must be
killed.”
The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map
The 1900 federal census
listed William Fidkins and his wife Alice residing at 122 South Fourth [Fifth]
West. He gave his occupation as a “contractor and builder.” and a native of
England as was his wife. He owned his property.
The 1900 federal census
also listed Ralph V Chamberlin residing at this address. He was a 21-year-old
schoolteacher recently married in 1899 to Daisy Ferguson. He was a teacher at
the LDS College and the son of William H. Chamberlin and Elizabeth Brown. He
and his wife only lived there briefly before moving.
Joseph A Morris lived in
the rear of 122 and was a 27-year-old Day Laborer, married with two
children. He only lived a brief time also before moving to Fifth West where he
was a teamster for a coal company.
Mr. and Mrs. Fidkin also
moved in 1904 from their home for nearly a quarter of a Century and moved
to 853 West First South where they loved next to their only
daughter.
Alice Fidkin died
1 January 1917 at the age of 66 years and William Fidkin died in 1921. His
funeral was held in the Fifteenth Ward Chapel. He was 73 years old.
“Funeral services for
William Fidkin 73, veteran Salt Lake fireman were held in the Fifteenth Ward
chapel Friday [December 30] About 30 members of the Veteran Volunteer Firemen’s
association attended in uniform.”
Warren Foster “Newspaper
Man”
536 West Second South
This address is not
located on the 1889 or 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. It may have been
renumbered 534 West as that the Chamberlin family had moved away from Second
South by 1897. In that year Warren and his son Willard Fosters resided at
this address.
Warren Foster
[1854-1909] “of Kansas” was the editor of the Inter-Mountain Advocate and his
son Willard was listed as a printer, boarding at the same address. The
Inter-Mountain Advocate was published once a week and was a “Populist”
publication that demanded “the free coinage of silver at a ratio and 16 to 1.
In 1891 he was the
editor of the Alliance Gazette along with his brother Horace S Foster Business
Manager The Gazette is the only People’s paper in Reno County.’ His brother Horace S
Foster later became the editor of Hutchinson Kansas Gazette.
The Populist Party
Foster came to Utah in
1894 from Hutchinson Kansas, “an active member of the organization of the
National Populist Party.” In Salt Lake he established the Inter-Mountain
Advocate which was later changed to “Living Issues” to promote Populist ideas.
In Kansas, as well as in Utah, Foster was
a strong Populist advocate against capital punishment “which grace him a
national reputation.”
The economic Panic of
1893 hit the working class extremely hard and there were “free soup houses”
throughout Salt Lake. Warren Foster championed the cause of the unemployed and
in January 1895 he gave a speech at a mass meeting of unemployed men in the
“old Tunnel on Second South Street where several hundred men were present.
A conservative estimate places the number of unemployed workingmen in at
between 750 and 1000 at the present time.”
Later in September 1895
he spoke at a Populist Rally of the Second Precinct which was “convened in open
air and open mouth session at the corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and Second South last night for nearly an hour
ranting indictment against the Republican and Democratic Parties, “a streetlamp
furnished light.”
Warren Foster became a
leader in the Populist party in Utah and was nominee for Congress from his
party in 1896. Foster never held any political positions in Utah, however
he “was twice the Populist candidate for Congress for Utah in 1896 and 1898.”
In 1902, he was the Socialist candidate for a Supreme Judgeship.
A Historical Society Proponent
Warren Foster was an
advocate of creating a historical society for Utah. A newspaper account of a 25
January 1895 speech given to Utah Press Association convention, held at the
Knutsford Hotel, stated, “Warren Foster explained in an interesting manner the
necessity of establishing a historical society in Utah and how the one in
Kansas was founded and conducted and what a grand institution it was. Mr.
Foster was appointed temporary historian and the society will be started by
every newspaper in Utah which will be carefully filed for futures reference and
in time may be bound in neat volumes.
Leaving Second South
Warren Foster moved away
from Second South by 1898. He was listed as living at 763 East First South
Street Salt Lake City in the 1900 Federal Census.
This is the location of
the playground for Bryant Middle School today.
Warren Foster’s Sons
Warren Foster’s son
Willard Foster became a noted actor. In 1899 Willard Foster was mentioned in a
Kansas newspaper as “winning distinction as an actor, son of Warren Foster. He
is traveling with John S. Lindsay and his Shakespeare company. Only 18 years old,
youngest Iago to ever appeared upon the stage.”
Foster and his son T.
DeWitt Foster started a newspaper called the Aberdeen Gazette in Idaho.
Death of Warren Foster
Warren Foster died at
the age of 55 October 1909 in Ogden. It was rumored that he had committed
suicide which was false. The Ogden Standard reported reporting on his death
stated that Foster, “the great advocate against capital punishment in the
United States and one of the most active organizers of the Populist Party, died
at the home of his brother Horace S Foster, 2158 Harrison Avenue of
complications of stomach and liver diseases.”
“Mr. Foster was taken
ill about ten days ago at Aberdeen, Idaho and came to Ogden for treatment. At
time of his death was publisher and proprietor of the Aberdeen, Idaho gazette.
He was assisted in the publication by his son T DeWitte Foster.”
“Was a loving husband
and father and loyal brother made legions of friends and in political life few
enemies. Funeral was held at the Odd Fellows Hall in Salt Lake before sent to
Wichita Kansas for burial.”
The Hutchinson Kansas
carried news of his death also. “Salt Lake City newspapers, which have arrived
in the city indicates that first reports to the effect that Warren Foster committed
suicide were erroneous. Mr. Foster’s depth was natural and died at the home of
his brother in Ogden after an illness of several weeks.”
“Warren Foster was a
former resident of Hutchinson. He left here fourteen or fifteen years ago and
went to Salt Lake City. He came to Hutchinson from Haven and founded the
Gazette, which became the official organ of the Farmer’s Alliance and was the
weekly paper from which the present Gazette developed. Foster was a prominent
leader of the reform movement in this section, in the time of the Farmer’s
Alliance and the early Populist Day, having ability as a writer and speaker.”
“His brother Horace was
associated with him in the publication of the newspaper and remained in
Hutchinson about a year after Warren Foster left. Then he too moved to Utah,
locating at Ogden. It was at Ogden that Warren ended his life on last
Saturday.”
“Warren Foster had a
son, Willard who won considerable prominence as an actor. He is married, his
wife being an actress. A daughter Florence [Chamberlin] was an accomplished
musician. After the family moved to Salt Lake City, Florence married but later
separated from her husband. So far as known here, the children as well as the
wife, survive Foster.”
“Warren Foster had
ability but apparently was unable to make a permanent success. The older
residents will remember him well.”
An interesting anecdote
was printed that indicated Warren Foster’s liberal views. When a letter he wrote to be “opened after
his death,” was published it contained his wishes to be cremated.
.“I have paid rent all
my life; I mean to quit when I die. For my final disposition of my old body my
first wish is that it be cremated. If inconvenient or expensive, then lay me
away in the potter’s field. But in no event, under any condition, am I to be
buried in any cemetery where they sell lots or charge rental of any kind for
keeping lots in condition. Any evasion of this request will meet my hearty
disapproval for which there will be no forgiveness either in this life or the
next. I want no landlord calling me up from my rest to pay his rent.”
Thomas Philip Lewis “Sheriff”
124 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed directly south of 122 South was a parcel without a
street address but contained a one-story adobe brick dwelling with a
detached small wooden building towards the front with the label “ice cream”.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map gave the parcel the address of 124 South.
The lot was 3 rods [49 feet 6 inches] by 10 rods [165 feet] the same as
the parcel at 122 South.
Thomas Philip Lewis [1843-1927] was born in Bristol, England of Welsh descent, He was
a railroad construction boss, an owner of the Cleveland mine, and Salt
Lake County Sheriff. He said he came to the United States in 1870 however
his eldest son was listed as born in Utah in 1868.
The 1880 federal census showed the family of Thomas P
Lewis living in a boarding house in the Ely & McIntyre Mills, Tintic
Precinct if Juab County. He was listed as a laborer and his wife was a
milliner. They had six children living in their household the oldest being 12
and the youngest 7 months. All their children were born in Utah. In 1900 Mary
Ann Lewis was said to have been the mother of nine children with three having
died by 1900.
Their children were
William H. Lewis [1869-1894], Henry Arundel Lewis [1871-1871], Walter James
Lewis [1872-1960], Martha “Mattie” J Lewis Lloyd [1874-1942] Joseph Rimron
Lewis [1876-1917], May M Lewis Ryan [1878-1959], Edward “Ted” C Lewis
[1880-1962], Charles Francis Lewis [1882-1882] and Elvira Lena Lewis Hollenbeck
[1885-1962].
The Lewis family had
moved from Juab County to Salt Lake City by 1881 when he purchased from Henry
Moore for $400 a parcel some 182 feet from the northeast corner of the
lot of 3 rods [49 feet 3inches] .
The 1883-1885 Utah
Directory published by J.C Graham & Co. “containing the Name and
Occupation of Every Resident in Salt Lake City and listed T. P. Lewis as a
boilermaker living on the west side of Fourth [Fifth] South between first and
second South.
The 1885 city directory
listed Thomas P Lewis was living at 124 South Fourth [Fifth] West as a
carpenter. The 1890 city directory listed him at this address working as a
“roadmaster for the Ft. Douglas Railway.
Son Killed in Train Accident
Thomas Lewis’
25-year-old son William H. Lewis was killed in an accident while working as a
‘roadmaster” for the Utah Central Railway in Parley’s Canyon. He was thrown
from a handcar which broke his skull.
“Mr. Decker , the
gentleman who was with Lewis when he met his death, testified that the brake
shoe on the hand car was out of order. He explained that two washers were
necessary on the brake in order to make the shoe set properly to the face of
the wheel, but that they were missing and consequently the shoe slipped over
the outside of the wheel and would not work. He further testified that Lewis
was dead when he returned to the place he had fallen off.”
Other witnesses were
examined as to the responsibility of Lewis taking a hand car out on the
road when it was out of order. All were of the opinion that as Lewis was as road
master, “he was responsible for tools that were not in condition.”
J E White made a
voluntary statement under oath that Lewis had “at times in coming down the
grade on the hand car,” rode very fast. White stated that Lewis once “missed
the train for Salt Lake one day and in order to get to the city he got on the
hand cart and turned it loose down the grade and caught the train. One other
occasion he had seen Lewis ride out at the rate of a mile a minute and one
other occasion Lewis went down the canyon on the hand cart without any brake at
all.”
“ The jury returned a
verdict to the effect that the deceased came to his death by falling accidently
on his head from a hand car near Decker’s station on the Utah Central
railway , causing concussion of the brain. The funeral will take place today
[July 31] at the Fifteenth Ward Meeting house.”
Candidate for Sheriff
In 1894 it was
reported “Tom Lewis is making a great hustle for sheriff on the Democratic
Ticket.” Tom Lewis was superintendent of construction of the Sanpete Valley
Line at the time.
“William Mc Queen has
many friends to back him for sheriff, but Tom Lewis has developed wonderful
strength and the county precincts will go for him heavily. Lewis’s men were
elected at every precinct last night [Oct 16] and it looks now as though Tom
would win easily.”
Evidently Lewis was very
popular. “A large and enthusiastic lot of laboring men met in the Federated
Trades hall last night and organized the Thomas P Lewis club. It was entirely
non-partisan, being composed of both Democrats and Republicans. Over 150 signed
the roll.”
“T.P Lewis, Democratic
candidate for sheriff, is a man who needs but to be known to be admired, and if
,as is now conceded, he is elected, he will make Salt Lake County one of the
best Sheriffs she ever had.”
Those opposing Lewis’
bid for sheriff accused him of being a
member of a national organization known as the American Protective
Association and locally the Amoreines. The
A.P.A. was an anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant group.
“Mr. Lewis, the man that
he is, has through the columns of the Salt Lake Tribune, published to the world
his flat denial of being a member of the A.P.A, of which he has been accused.
He is the workingman’s friend, no matter what his nationality or religious
convictions be.”
“As proof of this, we
cite the voters in his mining operations in Eureka, Utah, where though the
scale of wages was lowered to the lowest notch, he recognized not the cut, but
continued to pay his employees he same wages they received prior to the lowing
of the scale.”
“You earn your $3.00 per
day, boys, and you shall have it while you work for me, regardless of what
others pay,” said Mr. Lewis to his men.”
“Is this not evidence of
his friendship to the workingmen? We say it is and the men whose suffrages he
asks will not forget his utterances on the wage question when they go to the
polls to votes next Tuesday [November 6].
Although Tom Lewis was a
candidate, he had issues with being registered to vote. “This peculiar state of
affairs is due to the omission of the registration officers, who failed to get
him on the voting list, notwithstanding that the railroad construction boss and
Democratic candidate for sheriff lives in the Second Precinct at 12 South
Fourth [Fifth] West Street.”
Tom Lewis lost his bid
for Sheriff by only 143 votes and “it is stated on good authority that
during the count at one poll in the Second Precinct, several Democratic ballots
were adroitly brushed from the table to the floor and not counted.”
In 1896 Thomas P. Lewis
ran for Sheriff again and this time was elected. Upon taking office in 1897 he
complained that his office had been cut from a staff of nineteen deputies,
bailiffs and jailers that cost $1510 a month” to eleven men and a stenographer
with a total salary roll of $785” or $75 a month for each officer.
In 1898 his son Joseph R
Lewis enlisted in the army during the Spanish-American War and was discharged
in Florida before returning to Utah.
A newspaper account from
April 1898 stated, “Eighteen stalwart men, whose names appear in the above list
stood yesterday before the local recruiting officer with instructions from the
war department.” Joseph R Lewis among those listed.
“The members of troop I (the Utah troop) of the Second United States cavalry
volunteers (Torreys’ Rough Riders)” was organized “at Salt Lake City, Utah, May
15, 1898; mustered into the United States service at Fort D.A. Russell, Wyoming,
May 18, 1898” The troop was “attached to the Seventh Army, under Major General
Fitzhugh Lee since June 26, 1928.”
In August Lewis was
listed in Troop I of the Rough Riders under Lieutenant Colonel “John Q Cannon”
When the troop I was
mustered out at “Camp Cuba Libre, Florida”, they voted unanimously on 28
October 1898 to present their Troop flag “to the state of Utah through the Hon. Heber M. Wells, governor of
the state.”
Those chosen, to be on
the committee to present the standard, were unanimously elected. They were “First
Sergeant Edwin H Clark, Sergeant Frank Jardine and Corporal Joseph R Lewis are
unanimously elected to. The Rough Riders standard was given to the
state in a ceremony on 15 Nov 1898.
The 1900 federal census
listed Thomas P. Lewis’s family still living at his address in block 64. He
gave his occupation as a mining man and not as sheriff. He and his wife Mary
had 9 children only six living in 1900. Lewis owned the home he was living
in.
William Lloyd
The census showed that a
22-year-old man named William J Lloyd who worked as a teamster was
rooming with the family. In 1902 William J Lloyd, [1877-1935] who was
then a Salt Lake City Fireman still boarded at this address and would marry
Thomas’ daughter Mattie in 1903. He was the son of William T Lloyd
[1855-1902] and Mattha Lloyd, and grandson of the pioneer shoemaker William J
Lloyd [1823-1903] of the Fifteenth Ward.
His father William T. Lloyd
“who has been prominent in police circles for several years past because of his
weakness for liquor, died last night [29 March 1902], liquor having been
responsible for his death. Lloyd had been drinking heavily of late, but it was
not thought the liquor would have a fatal effect until he was seized with
convulsions last night at the home of relatives on West First [South] Street.
Acting coroner Sommer was summoned but decided that the death was due to
alcoholism and then an inquest would not be necessary.”
1910 Census
In the 1910
federal census showed Thomas P Lewis listed as a “Night watchman” for a
warehouse. It is probable he worked for the Redman Storage company which had built
a warehouse on his adjoining lot where the Westminster Presbyterian Church was
for most the years that Lewis lived in his home. William John Lloyd was
still living with this family as a son in law. The neighborhood by 1910 had
become predominately Italian, Greek, or Middle Eastern.
Tom Lewis’ wife Mary Ann
Rimron Lewis passed away in 1913 at her home at 124 South Fourth [Fifth] West
at the age of 71 years. Her funeral was held in the home Thomas P
Lewis continued to live at this home until about 1915 when he move away.
Joseph R Lewis
Tom Lewis’ son Joseph R Lewis was killed in an automobile
accident in 1917. “Lewis Hurled From Auto Running Board- Joseph Lewis 47,
suffered a fatal skull fracture , when he fell from the running board of an
automobile. The accident occurred at Third [Fourth] West and second South.”
“The car was in charge
of Frank Byrdett, 19, 3 Merrick Court, and an employee of the Auto Supply
company. Lewis, according to the story told the police, had climbed on the auto
to take a ride. As the driver neared, he intersection of the two streets, a
Japanese riding a bicycle appeared in the path of the auto. To avoid striking
the Japanese, Burdett applied the brake and brought the car to a sudden stop.
At the same instant Lewis was thrown to the pavement. He died at 1 o’clock this
morning [June 12].”
Another account of
the accident stated, “Burdett had suddenly applied the brakes to avoid hitting
a Japanese who refused to move to one side. Lewis lost his grip of the car and
fell heavily to the pavement.”
“Lewis was once wealthy
and well known is Salt Lake but of recent years has been reduced to straightened
circumstances. Burdett said he was intoxicated when the accident happened.”
Death of Thomas P Lewis
Thomas Philip Lewis died
21 June 1927 in Salt Lake City. His
death certificate stated he lived in Utah for 58 years and his occupation was
“Ex-Sheriff for Salt Lake County”, and his last residence was at 340 Post
Street. His son E.C. Lewis was the informant. Salt Lake City Cemetery records
show his Grave Location as “K-3-3-3W.”
He was survived by his second
wife Hannah Evans who he married in 1921 and children Walter James Lewis.
“Pioneer Railway
Contractor and Sheriff Is Dead. Thomas P. Lewis helped Build Many Railroads in
Far West. Thomas P Lewis, 84, a former railroad contractor and sheriff of Salt
Lake County in 1897-1898, died at the home of his son Edward C Lewis 340 Post
Street, Tuesday.”
“Mr. Lewis assisted in
the building of practically every railroad in Utah with the exception of the
Western Pacific. During recent years he has been employed by the Denver &
Rio Grande Western Railroad.
He was born in England
April 18, 1843, and came to Utah nearly sixty years ago. Surviving hm are his widow Hannah Lewis and
the following children: Walter J., Mrs. Mattie Lloyd, Mrs. Mary Ryan, Mrs. Doll
[Elvira L Hollenbeck] Hollandbeck and Edward C Lewis. Eighteen grandchildren
also survive. ”
William John Lloyd
William John Lloyd
committed suicide in 1935 having “shot self in heart.” “The body of
William J Lloyd 58, 346 West Sixth South Street, was discovered Thursday
[October 10] about 10:30 p.m. in a garage back of his home. Lloyd, police said
died of a self-inflicted bullet wound. According to relatives he had been
despondent for some time over ill health. Police Surgeon Henry Raile said the
bullet fired from a revolver, ranged through the left side, and pierced the
heart.”
John McKeever
119 South and 117 South
Fifth[Sixth] West Duplex
In August 1890, the Salt
Lake Tribune reported that the firm of Dallas and Hedge “have the plans for
cottages to be built for Harry Evans in the Fifteen Ward.” Harry Evans
was a businessman who operated a grocery store, and these were built at the
south half of his property.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a one-story brick duplex at this address.
From 1895 to 1900 a
railroad conductor named Emery C Allen, age 31 in 1900, lived at 119 South.
Allen was from Iowa and was married with two young children.
Living adjacent at 117
South in 1900 was a man named John McKeever [1848-1910] who worked as a
Railroad Clerk. An announcement of arrivals at Salt Lake Hotels in 1890
mentioned John McKeever as staying at the White House Hotel on the corner of
Main Street and Second South in 1890 and working for the Rio Grande
western. The 1890 city directory listed him as a roomer at 161 South
Fifth West Street with his occupation given as a clerk for the Rio Grande
Western Railway where he was also listed in 1892. He married in 1892 and
more than likely he lived at this address at least from 1893 until the time of
his death seventeen years later.
McKeever was a native of
New York City born to Irish parents. At the age of 17 he joined the United
States Army in 1866 and served in Texas. At the age of 21 in 1869 he reenlisted
in San Antonio, Texas and when his term of service expired in 1874, he married
with a family and a sergeant stationed in Ft. Garland, Colorado.
John and his first wife
Mary McKeever had at least seven children together before her death in 1882 at
Alamosa, Colorado. John McKeever remarried to Elizabeth Malone in 1892. His
wedding certificate that he was of “Salt Lake City although the couple were
married by a “Catholic Priest” in Kansas City, Missouri.
He was involved in
politics as that in 1896, he was a chairman and speaker at a Democratic meeting
“held in the Second Municipal Ward last evening [Oct 29], for the benefit of
the railroad men of the Rio Grande western.” The political rally was held
“at the corner of Second South and Fifth West” and was described as “Hegney’s
old place.” “John McKeever presided and presented the first speaker Morris
Sommers, a candidate for Justice of the Peace for the Second.”
The 1900 Federal Census
listed in his household his wife Elizabeth and his 21-year-old son named George
who was a photographer, evidently the only child still living at
home.
A Mysterious Foundling
In 1904 a baby was left
on the doorsteps of the McKeever’s residence which was featured in the Salt
Lake newspapers.
“Find A Baby At The
Door. Owen Smith, Ten Days Old, Has an Adventure. Seems To Have No Parents.
Well, Cared For and Placed In Home-“
“Carefully wrapped in a
heavy shawl and warmly dressed, a babe about ten days old was found sleeping
soundly about 9 o’clock last night [12 November 1904] on John McKeever’s
doorstep at 117 South Fifth West Street. A bundle of clothes was found beside
the infant and a nursing bottle filled with warm milk. In the bundle of clothes
was a letter bearing the name Owen Smith, which is evidently the child’s name,
and the note had undoubtedly been written by the mother.
“Please take care of my
little one until I can go and get my other three little children,” the letter
read, and a $5 gold piece was enclosed in the envelop. The babe was taken into
the house by Mrs. McKeever and tenderly cared for until the police were
notified, and the babe was taken by Officer Taylor to the Home Finding
Association.
“Several neighbors came
in during the evening and changed about, holding the infant in their arms and
warming its feet in front of the fire.”
“The child awakened
shortly after it was brought into the house and seemed very bright. In spite of
its tender age, it opened its large blue eyes and laughed and cooed as the
mothers sat around the fireside and talked to it.”
“Mr. and Mrs. McKeever
had been home all the evening and while they were reading the papers, they
heard something drop on the front doorstep. They paid no attention to the
noise, thinking that it was some of their neighbors’ children. A half hour
later, just before going to bed, Mr. McKeever stepped out on the front porch
and almost stumbled over the child.”
“He picked up the
bundle, not realizing what it was, and turning around to the light saw that it
was a baby. He called his wife, and the child was cared for.”
“The other bundle of
clothes was carried into the house and unwrapped and several articles of
clothing, consisting of stockings, long clothes and bibs were found. The
nursing bottle filled with milk, a cleaner and a small package of borax
was also picked up on the porch.”
“After calling in the
neighbors, Mr. McKeever notified the police, and Officer Taylor carried the
baby to the station, and it was taken to the Home Finding association.”
“There is nothing that
can be found that will give any clue to whom the child’s parents are, and the
police doubt whether the child’s name Is Owen Smith. The letter was badly
written, evidently to disguise the handwriting, but it is believed the baby’s
parents live in that vicinity .
The police believe that
if the mother was going to get her other children, she would not have taken
such means to have the child cared for but would have given it to some of her
relatives or friends.”
The police will
investigate the matter today and some of the neighbors are of the opinion that
they know to whom the child belongs.”
Another account of the
account only differed in small details. “An Infant At Police Station-Great
Demand for the Little One. He was found on the Doorstep of a Private Residence.
Half-Dozen Persons Wanted to Adopt Him, but He Will Go to the Home Finders.”
“Please take care of my
little one, while I go and look after my other three little ones.”
“The above note,
accompanied by a two-week old babe and a $5 gold piece, was found on the steps
of John McKeever’s residence at 117 South Fifth West Street, shortly after 9
o’clock last night [12 November 1894]. There is no clue to the identity of the
child, and it will probably be turned over to the Home Finding association
unless someone calls to claim it. The babe was plainly dressed and was wrapped
in a woolen shawl to protect it from the cold night wind. The child is
apparently two weeks old.”
“Answers the Doorbell.
Shortly after 9 o’clock last evening the doorbell at the McKeever residence
rang. Mr. McKeever, himself, answered the call and seeing no one, was about to
close the door when he discovered what he thought to be a bundle of rags lying
on the steps.”
“As he stooped to
examine the bundle, McKeever heard a smother cry and upon looking closer,
discovered a tiny head encased in the shawl. The little outcast was taken
inside and the police at once notified by telephone.”
“Baby Eats Supper. When
Officer Taylor arrived at the home the baby was busily engaged in “eating
Supper’ from a bottle, fitted up with a rubber attachment. The little fellow
seemed quite at home and did not make any disturbance as long as he was not
separated from his bottle.”
The babe was taken to
the police station, where he was given every attention by the burly policeman.
In less than an hour after the child had been brought in, Sergeant Pratt
had received half a dozen applications from persons who desired to adopt him.
However, Pratt did not feel equal to the task of Solomon, so the child was
turned over to the matron of the Foundling’s home. The little one will probably
be turned over to some good family today.”
Nearly a week later news
of the baby’s adoption was published. “Foundling Is Adopted. The baby that was
found on the steps of the John McKeever home several days ago changed ownership
twice Friday [November 18] It was given by the court to the Children’s Aid and
Home Finding Association and was then adopted by Henry Johnson. The papers were
signed by Judge Diehl.”
Tragically the baby died
within a month of being adopted. “Foundling Is Dead. Mystery of Identity of a
Doorstep Waif May Never Be Solved. The mystery that shrouds the identity of the
foundling that was left on the doorstep of John McKeever 117 South Fifth West
Street at 9 o’clock on the night of November 12, will probably always remain a
mystery, as the child is dead.”
“When the little one was
found on the McKeever doorsteps, with a basket full of fine baby clothes and a
note in the bundle asking that the baby be given good care, the McKeever family
fell in love with the wailing little bundle of humanity and wanted to keep it
for their own. This they could not do, because they already had a large
family.”
“The child was then
taken in charge by Mrs. V.A. Stickney, superintendent of the Children Aid and
Home Finding Association, whence it was adopted by the family of Patrolman
Henry Johnson.”
“A few days ago, the
child became ill of cold, which quickly developed into pneumonia, and the baby
died Sunday night [December 18]. The Johnson family is as greatly grieved over
the death of the child as though it had been one of their own.”
In December 1909
it was published that Utah’s “Senator Reed Smoot has introduced two pension
bills, one in favor of William H George and the other John McKeever, both of
Salt Lake City and both for $30 a month.” It was not mentioned why the
Senator introduced the two pension bills but may have been that McKeever was a
veteran.
McKeever died in 1910
and his death certificate stated the place of death was at 117 South Fifth West
and that his occupation was “railway clerk.”
His obituary was printed
in the Intermountain Catholic Newspaper. “The death of John McKeever at his
residence 117 South Fifth West, last Saturday[12 March 1910] removes from this
community a man that was highly respected and esteemed by all who made his
acquaintance.”
“Mr. McKeever was born
in New York March 14, 1848. At the age of 17 he entered the army but owing to
his youth he was assigned to the army band as a drummer boy. He served for
eight years and was discharged honorably, being at the time a sergeant.”
“He was twice married,
and leaves five children, one daughter and four sons to morn his loss.”
“After leaving the army
he came to Colorado and was appointed postmaster in that state. He also served
as a city marshal and was in the mail service.”
“His second marriage,
after being a widower for ten years, took place at Kansas City where he married
Elizabeth Malone, the marriage ceremony being performed by Archbishop Glennon,
who was the rector of St. Mary’s cathedral at the time. To his bereaved widow
The Intermountain Catholic extends its deepest sympathy.”
“The funeral took place
from St. Mary’s Cathedral last Monday. Father Brennan celebrated the Requiem
Mass and spoke feelingly of the many virtues of the deceased. His proud record
as a soldier of his country and faithfully supplemented by his record as a true,
faithful, and loyal soldier of the cross.”
“The choir from St.
Patrick’s Church of which Mr. McKeever was a member from its inception, sang
solemn and suitable hymns. Internment took place in Mount Calvary. Denis
McGrath, Michael Boyle, Chares Ivers, Dan McNamara, Frank J Guth and Fred
Brining served as pallbearers.
Norman McLeod “Journalist”
531 West First South
Norman W. McLeod was a journalist who also was
an editor of several small local papers over the course of several years, none
of which seemed to be successful. He lived for a brief time at 533 West First
South along with other family members.
Norman W. McLeod was the son of Alexander and
Helen MacLeod and born in Scotland. His mother stated she emigrated in
1888 and was born March 1842. A daughter Nellie who was a dress maker was
born in 1871. Helen was the mother of 9 children, 6 alive in 1900.
In 1892 MacLeod
was called “formerly an attaché of the Salt Lake Herald and also the Logan
Journal” who had “accepted the position of editor and assistant manager of the
Utah Republican at American Fork. Mr. McLeod had been engaged in journalism in
California and the Southern States for several years and is well equipped
in every way for the position he assumes.”
The position did not
last, as did most of his career as editor of various small papers, for
the following year in 1893 he was editor of The Tuscarora as well as The
Rocky Mountain Scotsman. The 1893 city directory listed MacLeod as the
publisher of the Tuscarora, offices at 231 South Main while he himself was
residing at 3 Reading Court. While in the same year the Rocky Mountain
Scotsman” was touted, as “the latest venture in Salt Lake journalism. It
is a sixteen page weekly filled with well prepared and interesting matter and
handsomely illustrated. N.W. MacLeod is the editor with W.A. Robertson as
assistant. It deserves success.”
It may have deserved
success, but it did not last as that MacLeod started the Tooele Transcript in
July 1894. “The Tooele Transcript No 1 Vol 1 has reached us [the Brigham City
Bugler]. It is already one of the nicest and cleanest country newspapers
published in Utah. It is independent in politics, as we are all good country
papers whose object is to get the news and work for the interests of all the
people in the county.” MacLeod however sold the newspaper in August 1894
to Lorenzo Beesley and F. E. Gabriel which still exists today [2021] as
the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin.
MacLeod then joined a
man named Scipio Africanus Kenner and his Great Campaign newspaper. The
1895 city directory listed him as a “solicitor” for The Great campaign.
MacLeod as one of the proprietors of the Great Campaign in 1885 accused Paul
Kraig, “a young man”, of embezzlement. He said “Kraig was employed by his firm
and collected $35 or $40 of its money with which he skipped, supposedly to
Ogden. Mr. MacLeod made complaint in United Sates Commissioner Sommer’s Court
and a warrant for Kraigs was placed in the hands of the United States
Marshal.”
The 1896 city directory
listed Norman W. MacLeod still as “solicitor” for the Great Campaign, rooming
at 533 West First South along with two female relatives, his sisters Mary and
Rena MacLeod who both worked as clerks for the Walker Brothers and Fyler
Company. These women in 1893 and 1894 had been listed as living in the
household of Mrs. Helen Macleod who was later identified as the widow of
Alexander MacLeod.
These MacLeods moved
away from 533 West by 1897 when they moved to 4 Amos Terrace living with Helen
MacLeod widow of Alexander MacLeod. Norman W MacLeod was listed as
the associate editor and manager of the Great Campaign residing at 4 Amos
Terrace along with Nellie McLeod a dressmaker, and Rena a clerk.
The 1897 city directory
also listed Kenner, MacLeod & Paulson, Publishers, and Proprietors of The
Great Campaign offices at 39 ½ South West Temple. Scipio A Kenner was a
lawyer and editor in chief of the Great Campaign. Peter Paulson was
listed as the foreman of the Great Campaign and was residing with Norman W. MacLeod
at 4 Amos terrace.
By 1897 Kenner retired
from the paper, which was in debt, and MacLeod “a vigorous young writer”
was “in full charge. “The Great Campaign came out yesterday [2 January 1897]
with the .name of Norman W MacLeod at the top of the editorial column, Hon.
S.A. Kenner having retired from management. The paper will be enlarged in a
couple of weeks.” Another paper commented
“The Great Campaign comes much improved typographically with the name of NW
McLeod at its mast head.”
One paper was critical
of the paper nevertheless saying, “The Great Campaign has made the mistake
under new management of endorsing Thatcher’s anti-church fight.” This comment
was in regard to Mormon church president Wilford Woodruff’s support of a
written rule where that all Mormon General Authorities would require the
approval of the First Presidency before seeking public office. The Apostle
Moses Thatcher did not agree with this new rule and in 1896 was removed from
the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles over the issue.
By 1898 Carter as “
associated editor and manager of the Great Campaign” was called the
“new campaigner of a new Salt Lake publication devoted to politics, business,
art, and the silver cause. It is edited by N.W. McLeod the former partner of
S.A. Kenner.
MacLeod married a
divorced woman named Mary C Mills in 1897 at the Cullen Hotel in Salt
Lake City. The marriage did not last. “Norman W. McLeod Did
Not Meet Her Expectations-‘ Mary L MacLeod yesterday [10 January 1900]
filed a suit for divorce from Norman W. McLeod on the grounds of failure to
support. The complaint states that the marriage took place on April 9, 1897, in
Salt Lake and that the defendant ever since failed to support the plaintiff,
Mrs. McLeod asks for a decree of divorce and the custody of her two children by
a former marriage.”
“Alleges she had to rely
upon her own labor and resources and the help of her two children by a former
husband both boys 13 and 10 respectively.”
“MacLeod is a newspaper
man of considerable ability. He came to this country from Scotland about twelve
years ago and is now said to be a resident of Cardston, Canada. Left for
Cardston Canada a year ago ostensibly to embark in the newspaper business
in the new settlement.”
The Great Campaign
newspaper folded in 1899 and McLeod moved to Canada without his wife to publish
the Cardston Record. While living in Canada his house went up in flame. “The
home of N.W. McLeod at Cardston, Alberta was destroyed by fire on Monday [2
April 1900]. Miss Emma McLeod , a sister succeeded in saving three trunks,
containing a small amount of clothing, but the remainder of the household
effects were consumed by the flames. The loss is placed at $600. Mr. MacLeod is
publisher of the Cardston Record, but before going north was connected with S.A.
Kenner’s Great Campaign in this city, where his mother and sister also
resided.”
.
“N.W. MacLeod Returns. Newspaper Man Working
Up Canadian Immigration- N.W. MacLeod , the ex-editor of the Cardston Canadian
Record is here [3 January 1901] in the interest of Canadian Immigration and had
about 2,000 books of information that will be distributed between here and
Logan. Mr. MacLeod was the deputy recorder of Salt Lake City during the last
term of Governor Wells and as city recorder during the last term and was the
minute clerk during the last term of Mayor Armstrong’s incumbency. He is here
in the interest of the Canadian Governments’ immigration department. Mr.
MacLeod has two papers under his control-The Cardston Record and the Swift
Current Courier.”
MacLeod returned to Utah
where he moved to Manti to take another position as an editor of a small-town
newspaper. “To Its credit and the benefit of its subscribers, the Manti
Messenger has changed hands; and is now [17 October 1901] being edited by Mr. NW
McLeod, a capable newspaper man.”
“P.A. Poulson has
retired from the management of the Manti Messenger and had been succeeded by NW
MacLeod . Mr. Poulson proposed to go to school and educate himself. He made
fair progress in that line while doing duty as a country editor.’
Within weeks MacLeod
made certain elements of the town upset and he left. His distracters claimed
that he had eloped and that he had been drunk and missed his train to Salt Lake
City. “N. W. McLeod who has been the editor of the Manti Messenger for the last
few weeks eloped Wednesday [11 December 1901] with a young lady whose
parents are well known in Manti. The young couple took the morning train for
Nephi where they expected to change cars for Salt Lake. At Nephi McLeod got to
drinking heavily and missed connections with the Salt Lake Train. In the
meantime, the girl’s parents had boarded the Rio Grande Western train for Provo
where they intended to head off the eloping pair. They also had the agent at
Manti telegraph the railroad officials to revoke McLeods mileage as he severed
his connection with the Messenger by request last week. This prevented
the eloping couple from going onto Salt Lake as he the engaged had no money.”
Once in Salt Lake,
MacLeod rebutted the accusations made against him. “Mr. N.W. McLeod who has
been the editor and publisher of the Manti Messenger for the past three months
arrived in the city from the south last evening’s train [Dec 13]. In
conversation with a reporter, a McLeod said he had been unfairly treated by the
correspondents at Manti and Nephi in the Salt Lake papers, the former being
prompted he alleges by political enmity growing out of the recent municipal
election at Manti.”
Continuing he said, “In
regard to the trouble in Nephi, in which my name was coupled with that of a
young lady, I wish to say that instead of being intoxicated soon after my
arrival there, as your correspondent relates, I was drugged with morphine
surreptitiously mixed in a glass of whiskey by a supposed friend. This soon
took effect, and I was led to a room and locked in for three hours in the
afternoon. I have witnesses who overheard the plot and as soon as my evidence
is complete, I intend to see if retribution will not insure. Ever since being
drugged I have been seriously unwell or would have entered before now my
emphatic denial of those stories sent out with the intention of doing me
irreparable injury throughout the state.”
By 1904 MacLeod as
writing for the “Mining Review of the Tri-City Times” published at American
Fork Utah. “N.W. McLeod the well-known writer on the editorial staff was
given a “7 column folio , well gotten up and replete with interesting local
news.”
On 13 Nov 1905 in
Richfield MacLeod at the age of 34 married 19-year-old Alice M Wicklund. He
left that paper in 1905 to become the editor of the Salina Post in Sevier
County. By early 1906 the Salina Post was “recently deserted by Editor N.W.
McLeod.” He must have moved to Oregon where his son was born in 1906.
The 1910 federal census
enumerated showed that Norman MacLeod twice once with his mother and
sisters in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania where he stated he was a
40-year-old Stock Exchange Broke and 22 April residing in Manhattan New
York City as a 38-year-old Stockbroker along with his wife and 3-year-old son
Norman Wicklund McLeod who was born in Oregon. Norman W. MacLeod and his
second wife were divorced when she remarried in March 1917 and he died June
1917 in Los Angeles, California.
His only child was a
poet, writer, and editor of several literary magazines. His parents divorced
and he was raised by a stepfather and his mother. He graduated from the
University of New Mexico in 1930 and lived and worked in a various part
of the Unites States, Europe, Russia, Iraq, and Canada. He was an
American correspondent in Moscow and wrote an autobiography I never Lost
Anything in Istanbul. He died at the age of 79 in 1985.
Harry M Newcomer- Locomotive Engineer
At this duplex at the
addresses of 558 West and 560 West Third South Street as was the families of Harry Newcomer [1853-1933], an engineer for
the Rio Grande Western Railway and Richard Moore a Rio Grande Brakeman.
Harry M Newcomer
[1859-1933] was a native of Pennsylvania who was in Utah by 1884 when he
married a Mormon woman.
Train Accidents
Working for the railroad
was a dangerous occupation and engineers often had to deal with accidental
deaths when their locomotives ran over careless pedestrians. In 1893 Newcomer
was “at the throttle of Engine No 8” when his Rio Grande Western switch engine
ran over a drunken 32-year-old William J Lucey, a member of the Sixteenth
Infantry band at Fort Douglas. Lucey had been out drinking all
night and had passed out on the tracks” near “the coal chutes on Sixth
[Seventh] West in the railroad yards.”
The Panic of 1893 and
railroad strike of 1994 had Newcomer working as a “Hostler” for the Rio Grande
and Western Railway. A hostler was a man employed to look after the horses of
people staying at an inn. City directories show that he was employed as a
hostler from 1895 through 1898.
The 1897 through 1899
Salt Lake City Directories also listed Newcomer as residing at 558 West Third
South and in 1899 he was employed as an engineer again for Rio Grande Western
Railway
In 1901 Newcomer was
involved in another accident involving Robert Beverley, a married family man
and teamster, who fell in front of the “switch engine” operated by Newcomer at
the corner of South Temple and Fourth [Fifth] West. Coincidently both
Lucey and Beverly left behind an infant only a few days old at the times of
their deaths.
Five years later, in
1906 John C. Hayes was “run down by a Rio Grande Western Switch engine at
Second South and Sixth [Seventh] Street” with engineer Harry Newcomer “in charge of the
engine that struck Hayes when he threw himself in front of the
engine.”
It was reported that Hayes had been in the
“saloon business many years and worked as a bartender but had just went to work
for the street department.” He was a married father of four and had a
$1000 insurance policy which the paper mentioned as to suggest a darker motive
for Hayes death.
The Quarrel Between the Newcomer Family and the
More Family
An 1899 newspaper
article reported on a quarrel, ending in a brawl, between Harry Newcomer and
Richard Moore. The account stated, “The duo reside in the same house” but
probably meant the duplex. Both of the railroad men were at the time “in the
employ of the Rio Grande Western company and were good friends until a couple
of days ago.”
A fracas between
Newcomer and Moore landed the two men in police court in 1899. “The trouble
occurred opposite the Rio Grande Western depot when a half dozen blows were
exchanged by the railroaders.” The altercation was over their children calling
each other names and throwing stones at each other, as that “the children of
the families have not seen eye to eye however and a regular feud has existed
between them for some time past.” These proceedings “led to the older folks
indulging in fisticuffs with the result that Moore appeared as defendant in an
assault and battery case upon Newcomer.”
Newcomer claimed, upon
“leaving his house on his way to work” was intercepted by Moore. “Come here,
the latter said, I have business with you.” Moore claimed that Newcomer’s children
had “bombarded his offspring with pebbles and malice aforethought and that he
wanted the parent to talk it over.”
The 1900 census showed
that Moore did not have children, but two minor sisters of his wife, Bertha and
Katie Richmond who lived with him. They were ages 11 and 10 in 1899. Newcomer
daughters and son, Jeanette, Eva, and Samuel were also about the same age as
the Richmond girls. They were 13, 11, and 10 respectively in 1899.
Newcomer “scorned the
invitation” to talk about the matter. Moore claimed after “the request was
refused,” Newcomer “hit him for suggesting it.” Newcomer stated that Moore
first had “squared off and belted him at will with a dinner bucket.” Then
“Moore handed Newcomer a stone and said, “Hit me with it, turning to him the
other side also.” Moore claimed he was “provoked over the rampages of
Newcomer’s children.”
The testimony given by
the two men in the police court was conflicting. Moore was said to have
“planted several blows on his erstwhile friend’s head and that the assailed had
reached the solar plexus of the assailant.” Richard Moore’s wife testified to
the fact that her husband had been hit saying he “had a big mark on his chest
after the fight.”
Police Court Judge
Christopher B Diehl said of the testimonies, “Somebody is mistaken” in who
started the fight but ruled however that Moore was the aggressor and ‘to remind
him of the scripture injunction, ‘Dwell together in peace and harmony.” He
imposed a fine of $5 on Moore.
The judge then dismissed
the quarreling fathers saying if “I had the power to make an order I would have
you move a mile or two away from each other and shun the use of even a party
telephone line.” The court reporter also recorded Judge Diehl’s frustration
over the case “as he reached for his third glass of water”, saying, “ Between
hot weather and neighborhood brawls I’ll soon be entitled as the newspapers say
of the ministers, to a well-earned rest!”
Richard Michael Moore
Information about Richard
Moore [1865- 1920] is scarce after the dust up with Harry Newcomer. He was born
in Nebraska of Irish parents and had married in 1893 on Ogden. After quarreling
with Harry Newcomer, he moved to a house he rented at 8 Denver Court by 1900
within Block 63. By 1910 the family had relocated to 220 South 9th
West, and he is listed as having a daughter.
The 1920 census taken in
January showed the family of Richard Moore living at 915 West Second South
where he was still listed as working as a brakeman. He owned his home. Some seven months later died in Los Angeles
California in August 1920 and his body was brought back to Salt Lake City to be
buried in the Mt. Olivet Cemetery. No mention how he died was in the papers.
The 1900 & 1910 Census
The 1900 federal census
listed 41-year-old Henry Newcomer and his family consisting of a wife and three
children. All his children were born in Utah. The 1910 Federal Census still
listed the family of Harry Newcomer at this address of 558 West on Third Street.
He stated he was employed as an engineer for the Denver and Rio Grande
Railroad. His wife said she was the
mother of 4 children two which were still living however her obituary named a
son and three daughters. Living next to the family was Camilio Rocco a 24-year-old
Italian who gave his occupation as a macaroni manufacture.
A newspaper announcement in 1906 also clarifying
the confusion of similar names of Newcomer with another man, wrote “The Harry
Newcomb who was arrested for beating a boy in a pool-room is not Harry
Newcomer, an engineer on the Rio Grande railroad. Newcomer is a “whole-souled,
genial gentleman, and the confusion of names might cause a great injury to a
most estimable man.”
The family moved from
Third South about 1918 to 1262 West Second South before the 1920 Census was
taken. He retired from the railroad in
May 1926.
Death of Harry Matthew Newcomer
Harry Newcomer died from incidents
and “infirmities” of old age in August 1933. He lived still at “1262 West Second South street.”
“Born in Pennsylvania, Mr. Newcomer
had lived in Salt Lake more than 50 years. He had served as an engineer for the
Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad for 35 years with a perfect record.
For the last six years he had been retired from active service.”
“Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Anna
Newcomer; three daughters, Mrs. L.M. Qualls, Mrs. George Stevens and Miss Anna
Newcomer; son, S.H. Newcomer, all of Salt Lake, and seven grandchildren.”
“Services for Harry Mathew Newcomer
will be held Friday at 3 p.m. in the Rose Room 36 E. 7th So. The Brotherhood
of Engineers will officiate. Friends may call at the French room in the
mortuary until time of service.
Interment in Mt. Olivet cemetery under the direction o Deseret Mortuary.”
Mrs. Louise Priday Hamilton
While living on Third
South in Block 63, Charles J. Priday’s 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].
In 1894, a newspaper
reported, “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
ceremony 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.”
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.
The Death of John Hamilton
“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. Salt Lake City newspapers printed
volumes on the killing that involved a “quite an attractive and refined looking
woman” and “a sober, industrious young man”, filled with lurid details of
adultery.
The newspapers reported
that John Hamilton had been “employed as a driver for the Troy Steam laundry”
where he worked as a driver and “was very well spoken of by his associates. ”
He “bore excellent character.”
Suspicions of an Affair
One evening, coming home
from his night job finding, unexpectedly, John Hamilton found that his wife not
at home. Becoming suspicious, he discovered that she was having an affair
with a “prominent young merchant named W. Charles Pavey. John Hamilton, it was reported,
was in the process of suing Pavey, naming him in the divorce proceedings
against his wife when he was killed.
Charles Pavey was
a native Canadian who had moved to Salt Lake from California and owned a
company made “wooden and willow” baskets. “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 having an affair with
her and he later, by June 1898, moved away to Santa Rosa, California after his
reputation was besmirched.
The Hamilton couple
lived at 857 Fourth [Fifth] South in April 1897. After discovering his wife’s
alleged infidelity, John Hamilton went to his father-in-law’s home on 544 West
Third South where his wife was staying after their separation to inform her
that he had taken “the initiatory steps towards procuring a divorce.” Lou
Hamilton then left her father’s house and went to stay with her married sister
and her husband Thomas Seddon at their home at 229 West First
Street.
The Shooting of John Hamilton
A few days later, John
Hamilton “rode up on his bicycle to call upon his wife” at her brother in law’s
home in the evening. There Hamilton quarreled with his wife before he was
shot dead in the front yard.
It was reported that
during the quarrel, John Hamilton struck his wife in the mouth while she had
retrieved a revolver. Then, “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 immediately
arrived to find Hamilton dead. Questioned by the police, Seddon claimed no
knowledge of how Hamilton was killed saying that the couple had had a “pleasant
conversation” and that they had not quarrel. However nearby neighbors said they
“heard loud voices of people quarreling” and when Hamilton left a woman
came to the door “disputing.”
The Arrest
Lou Hamilton was
arrested and taken to police headquarters on First South and State Street.
There she claimed that Hamilton had committed suicide. During the
interrogation, the woman stated “the interview between her and her husband were
exceedingly pleasant. He was quite jolly. I had no idea that he had any notion
of shooting himself when he left me.”
The police detectives
noticed that her lip was quite swollen and asked what had caused it. She
answered it was the result of a simple “love tap” that “her husband gave her at
parting.”
When the coroner
examined the corpse, it was determined that the “position of the wound lead to a
strong belief that the man did not kill himself.” However, the police
officers in charge, evidently swayed by Lou Hamilton, were inclined to “think
he committed suicide.” The relatives of John Hamilton disputed the suicide
notion entirely and reported that Lou Hamilton had threatened to kill
him.
Charged With Murder
Enough evidence was
produced by various witnesses, however so that Lou Hamilton was charged with
the murder of her husband. She went to trial in October 1897.
In court 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.”
The all-male jury were
hesitant to convict the woman, who was “quite an attractive and refined looking
woman,” and “until the scandal attending the tragedy, nothing against her
character was known.” Lou Hamilton was acquitted of the murder of her
husband.
Aftermath
Lou Hamilton went back
to live with her parents, who had by that time moved away from 544 West Third
South. In 1909 she even remarried while living in Chicago, Illinois.
Dean Joseph Rice
“Grocer”
503 West First South
Dean J Rice [1871-1949] was born in Omaha
Nebraska but by 1880 his family had moved to Evanston Wyoming. The 1880 Census
of Evanston, Wyoming, listed Dean Rice’s father as a “watchman” for the rail
road.
Dean Rice’s father Thomas C Rice had been a
Civil War soldier having enlisted in March 1863 at the New York City 16th Ward
recruiting station. By 1870 he had married Alice Moore while living in Omaha,
Nebraska working for the Railroad who recently migrated to the United States
from Dover, England.
In 1880 Thomas Rice said
he was born in 1838 in New York, but parents were from Kentucky and England.
Alice’s parents were Irish.
The family moved to Salt
Lake City in 1882 and the 1890 city directory listed Thomas C Rice as a car
inspector for the Union Pacific Railway and residing at 450 West Second South. His
son Dean J Rice was listed as a clerk for M. J. Hardin, a grocer, and boards at
550 West Second South probably a mistake. In 1893 he is boarding at 450 West
Second South with his Thomas C Rice. Dean is listed as a driver for Mrs. M J
Hardin.
Thomas C Rice died in
1893 while he and his wife Alice were rooming at 110 South Fourth [Fifth] West
which was one of the addresses for The Nevada House Hotel owned by John
Sullivan. For much of the 1890’s the Rice family lived at residences
located in Block 64 on the northeast corner
The widow Alice Rice then
became extremely active in the “George R Maxwell Post No. 5 of the Women’s
Relief Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic of which she served as
first vice president in December 1894.
“The George R. Maxwell,
W.R.C. will hold its regular meeting on Wednesday after this afternoon [
13 June 1898] will celebrate the birthday of Mrs. Alice Rice at her
residence 503 Wednesday First South birthday.”
Alice Rice was also an
active member of the Ivy Temple No. 2, Pythian Sisters, the women branch of the
Knights of Pythian Brotherhood of which she served as a Trustee. Her
husband was buried in the Knights of Pythian section of the Mount Olivet
cemetery as she would be and her son.
The 1894 the city
directory listed Dean J Rice as a “grocer” residing at 502 West First South
with his mother Alice Rice , the widow of Thomas C Rice. This was probably an error as all other
records show them at 503 West First South. In Salt Lake City Dean J Rice
operated a grocery store at 503 West First South from 1894 through 1896.
Rice moved his store by 1897 to Block 80
at 472 West located on the northwest corner of First South and Fourth [Fifth]
West.
Military records show
that “D J Rice” who resided at 503 West
First South age 23 was enrolled
into the county Militia in 1895.
Alice roomed at 110
South Fourth [Fifth] West in 1896 while
Dean Rice lived at 503 West 1st South and worked as a grocer. Both
addresses were at the south east corner of First South on Block 64. However,
the following year, the 1897 city directory showed Alice residing at 69 South
Third [Fourth West] with her son Dean Rice who now had his grocery store at 472
West First South in Block 80. The shop
was across the street from the passenger depot of the Oregon Short Line Rail
Road.
By 1898 Dean Rice resided
at 470 West in a one-story brick dwelling in four fourplex and his mother
boarding with him. The residence shared a wall with his store. Also, a young
man named “Walter John Lawson” was listed as a clerk for D J Rice and boarded
at 470 West. Lawson and Rice never married and lived together until their
deaths.
Walter John Lawson aka Loneso
Walter John Lawson is an
enigma. He is listed in several censuses in Rice’s household as a “nephew” but there is no indication that he
was related to the Rice family. Also, he is called Walter “Loseno” in many city
directories as well as some census records.
It is evident that Dean
Rice knew little about how old his “nephew” was and perhaps Lawson didn’t
either. The 1880 census of New York stated Lawson was born in 1876 which was
confirmed by a record of his birth 21
September 1876 to Walter John Lawson and Rachel Cohen.
Walter John Lawson and
Rachel Cohen were married less than a month earlier on 25 Aug 1876 in Manhattan
New York. Rachel Cohen was most likely Jewish as the daughter of Seelig and Hadassa
Cohen. Lawson must have know his birthday as his death certificate information
provided by Dean Rice gave Lawson’s birth date as 21 September 1882.
There is no record
showing that Walter Lawson was related to the Thomas C. Rice Family in New York
nor to the Moore Family. Alice Moore Rice had just immigrated to the United
States in 1870 shortly before marrying in Omaha, Nebraska. Dean Rice was born
in 1871.
Walter Lawson was only 5
years younger than Dean Rice however in various censuses his age varied
significantly. The 1900 census gave a ten years span been Rice and Lawson while
the 1910 census Lawson is listed as 31 years old [1879] and Dean Rice as 36 years old only a five-year
difference. The 1920 gave a 12 years difference in their ages . Lawson was
listed as 35 years old [1885] and Rice as 47 years old. In the 1930 census also gave a 12 years
difference in ages with Lawson’s age as 46 [1884] and Rice as 58
years old. In 1940 the ages were only ten years apart, age 59 [1881] and Rice
69 [1871].
Walter Larson in all the
censuses except for 1930 and 1940 was listed as a “nephew”. In 1930 he is
listed as a roomer, along Rice and in 1940 was Rice’s roommate. Lawson’s
surname varies in the censuses also. In 1900 he is “Loseno, in 1910 “Larson”,
1920 “Loseno”, 1930 Loseno, and in 1940 “Lawson”.
The exact relationship
between Dean J Rice and Walter J Lawson may never be known although they lived
together for at least 42 years, during many of which Rice supported Lawson.
The 1900’s
The 1900 census listed 28-year-old
Dean Rice as living with his widow mother Alice Matilda Moore Rice and “Walter
Loseno” at 470 West First South. Dean Rice stated his occupation was that of a
Grocer and 18-year-old Walter Loseno” was listed as a clerk in the store.
Interestingly Alice Rice was listed as the mother of 10 children with only 2
still alive in that year however there are no records of her having any
children other than Dean. Alice Rice was listed as head of the household, Dean
Rice as her son and Walter Loseno as “nephew”.
The 1902 city directory
listed “Walter J Loseno” as a “grocer” at 472 West First South and residing at
470 West which continued to be the residence of Dean Rice.
By 1906 Dean J Rice, his
mother Alice Rice, and Walter Lawson had moved to 717 West First South in block
262. His home was listed as a location for voting in the American Party’s
primary. The 1910 city directory listed
Dean J as manager of store for “W J Loseno” who rooms at 717 West. This location is now beneath the I-15
Freeway.
The 1910’s
The 1910 census listed the family’s residence at 717 West
First South where Dean Rice owned the home and listed himself as a merchant in
his own store. The store was called Success Grocery and located at 701 West on
First South. In his household was his widowed mother and Walter “Larson” who
was listed as unemployed.
The Salt Lake Telegram mentioned D J Rice in a blurb
called “File Another Protest.” On 8
August 1911, the article stated, “Residents in the vicinity of Sixth [Seventh]
West and First and Second South Streets have filed a communication with the
city recorder protesting against the monopolizing of the intersections of these
streets by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad company. The communication is
signed by D. J. Rice on behalf of the residents of the west side.”
“It is charged that
traffic across these streets is extremely dangerous, as the company permits
cars to stand across the sidewalks and trains being moved back and forth across the streets have resulted in numerous
runaways. The communication asks that the company be restrained from blocking
the streets or be required to place viaducts over them and the streets be
closed.”
Dean J Rice is mentioned most often in
newspapers as being a delegate in political parties representing the west side.
By 1918 Dean Rice had switched from the American Party to the Democratic Party
in which he was elected a delegate.
In 1915 Dean Rice gave
up his grocery store and found employment as a deputy county assessor. At this time
Walter Lawson listed as “Loseno” was being supported by him. The 1916 through
1918 city directories listed Dean Rice simply as a “clerk” and Walter J Loseno
rooming with Rice at 717 West Second South. The 1919 city directory listed Rice
as a deputy county assessor, but Walter Loseno was not listed at all. The World
War I registration of men for Utah does
not list Walter “Loseno” Lawson as having registered. If he was claiming to
have been born in 1882, he would have been registered.
Dean J Rice’s mother Alice
Moore Rice died in 1919 and was buried near her husband, Thomas C. Rice, in the
Knights of Pythian Brotherhood section of Mount Olivet Cemetery.
The 1920’s
The 1920 census listed
Dean Rice still at his home at 717 West living with “Loseno Rice” who is listed
as his nephew and unemployed. Rice gave his employment as being a clerk in
the county assessor’s office. The 1921 and 1922 city directory listed Rice also
as “deputy county assessor” living with “Walter Loseno” at 717 West who was
unemployed.
By 1923 Dean J Rice may
have lost his home as the city directory showed Lawson and he were living in a
rooming house at 657 West First South. This building was near where the Utah
Arts Alliance is located today at 663 West First South. Rice may have given up
his house at 717 West as it may have been too burdensome for him to keep up.
He also changed jobs and
went to work as a salesman for the Fleischmann
Company’s “Yeast for Health” product. In an advertisement for the
product Rice was quoted as saying, ““I was mentally censuring myself for a forty-eight-year-old
fool” writes Dean J Rice of 657 West First South Street, Salt Lake City. “The
firm’s advertisement had been explicit in stating that no applicant over thirty
years of age would be considered. And yet to his surprise, he was chose for the
position from seventeen applicants – on account of his personal appearance.”
“ A victim of stomach and
intestinal derangement with all the associate troubles-sallow skin, yellow tinged
eyes-I sneered at the idea of yeast doing what medicine had failed to do, but
fell for the ‘fad’ as I called it, and in less than three months became the
miracle of the neighborhood. Not only did I come back to where I had been, but
I went further-I became rejuvenated.” For his endorsement, Rice was one of 10 people nationally who a won $100
prize.
Dean worked for the
Fleischmann Company until 1927 when he temporarily was hired back as a clerk
for the county assessor’s office, but the 1929 city directory stated he was
working for the Utah and Oregon Railway company.
1930’s
In January 1930 a notice
in a newspaper stated that Dean J Rice was one of nine deputy county assessors field
deputies hired at a salary of $4 a day. His job was to appraise personal
property in Salt Lake. The 1930 census taken
in April however Dean Rice gave his occupation as a commercial salesman.
The 1930 census listed 58-year-old
Rice as rooming at 657 still with 46 years old “Walter Loseno” who gave his
occupation as a commercial artist.” The boarding home they resided in was valued
at $3000 and owned by a 73-year-old widow named Glorvina Creamer. Also living
in the home was a twenty 20 old man named Ray Rasmussen. The census stated that this
home had a radio set.
The 1930’s was the period in American History known as
the Great Depression where work was difficult to fine. Dean Rice is not listed
in the 1931 city directory but continued to live at 657 West until 1935. In
1934 he is listed in city directory as working as a laborer in the city’s park.
However, a report from March 1934 he was one of six field workers employed in the
county assessor’s office. Lawson was not
listed as employed the entire rest of the 1930 and would have been solely depended
on Rice.
The 1935 city directory
listed Rice and Lawson as having moved from First South to 239 West South. However,
the list of street addresses does not list any such address. There’s a business
at 236 West and a boarding house at 240 West but nothing for 239 West which
would have been on the south side of the street.
Stephen C Foster
Dean J Rice was
mentioned in several newspaper articles in 1937 regarding his song writing
ability as well as songs he claimed were written by nineteenth century minstrel
song writer Stephen C. Foster for his grandfather.
Dean J Rice claimed to
be the grandson of Thomas D Rice, an early American minstrel performer and
playwright who performed in blackface and used African American vernacular
speech to become one of the most popular minstrel-show entertainers of his
time. This man is considered the "father of American minstrelsy" and
the originator of the ‘Jim Crow’ character.
However, an article from
1937 stating that Dean J Rice was the grandson of Thomas Dartmouth Rice were
not factual. Either Rice believed he was the grandson of Thomas D Rice perhaps
through a family legend or perhaps he even fabricated the story.
In 1937, the Salt Lake
City Library, promoting “Musical Week”, showcased two songs alleged to have
been written by Stephen C Foster for Thomas D Rice. “Among the works of Stephen
C Foster, writer of “Swanee River”, “Old Black Joe” and other beloved folk
songs of the south, are two songs written by him but never published until
1930.”
“They had been given to
Thomas D Rice, the original “Jim Crow” of the black-face vaudeville, but never
used by him. Coming down through the family they came into possession of Dean
J. Rice, now a resident of Salt Lake City and a grandson of the stage ‘Jim
Crow’.”
“ Through a news
article, Josiah K. Lilley of Indianapolis learned of the unpublished songs.
Permission was asked of Mr. Rice to have them published, and in 1930 J Fisher
and Brother of New York City published the first edition of “Long -Ago Fay” and
“This Rose Will Remind You”. These with other works of Mr. Foster will be
exhibited at the library all week.”
Josiah K. Lilly was a
collector of Foster memorabilia for his
museum called Foster Hall and the original sheet music for “This Rose will
Remind You” is located in the Lester S Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns
Hopkins University.
Rice claimed to have two
unpublished songs written by Stephen C Foster and a guitar used by Foster that
had been given to Thomas D Rice and passed down through the family. How
Rice obtain the sheet music is an enigma as there is no proof that he was the
grandson of Thomas D Rice as that Rice’s life is quite documented and his
children are by an English wife and are well known. Dean J Rice father Thomas C
Rice is not among them. Thomas C Rice
stated that his father was born in Kentucky and Thomas D Rice was born in New
York City.
The Salt Lake Tribune
mentioned Rice also in a 1937 review of
a performance by concert singer John Charles Thomas in the LDS tabernacle. It
stated that one of Thomas’ songs was a composition called “The Last Ember” written “by a Salt
Laker, Dean J Rice.”
Another article from
1939 stated that Dean Rice also was said to have once owned a “guitar on
which Stephen Foster strummed his now famous compositions more than 80 years
ago,” which “today is accumulating dust in a Salt Lake second-hand
store”.
“It was purchased
several years ago from Dean J Rice who then lived at 657 West First Street, to
who it was handed down by his grandfather, Thomas D Rice, known as the
delineator of the “Jim Crow” Characterizations.”
The 1940’s
In the 1940 census, 69-year-old
Dean J Rice and 59-year-old Walter Lawson
were listed as “roommates”
residing at 156 West 4th South which would have been in City
Block 50 between West Temple and Second West. They were paying $10 a month for
the room, and neither were employed. The 1940 city directory showed that the
address of 156 West was vacant but in the a rear of the property two men lived.
The 1948 city directory
listed Dean Rice living at 156 West Fourth South. There was a Mrs. Jennie Carey
also living at that address. 156 West was listed as between Rigby Court and
Chesney Court. Between Rigby Court and Devon Court was the address of 125 West
.
The 1949 city Directory
showed the Frobes Company Mining equipment moved into 156 West which is
probably why Rice relocated to nearby 125 West Fourth South
Death of Walter John Lawson
Dean J Rice’s long-time
companion or “nephew” Walter John Lawson aka Loneso died 9 September 1940. He seemed to have been an
invalid for several years.
An obituary from 11 Sept
1940 probably provided by Dean Rice
stated, “Walter John Lawson Jr-
Private graveside services for Walter John Lawson Jr., 58, who died
Monday night in a Salt Lake Hospital will be conducted Thursday at 11 am at 156
West Fourth South Street, was an invalid for many years. Unmarried, he is
survived by an uncle Dean J Rice. He was
born Sept 21, 1881 in New York City, a son of Walter John and Rachel Cohen
Lawson. Friends may call at 2128 South State Street Wednesday evening and
Thursday until time of service.”
The Salt Lake Tribune
printed on 13 September a brief announcement of his death. “Walter John Lawson
58 156 West Fourth South Street died of arteriosclerosis on Sept 9.”
Walter John Lawson was
buried in the Rice Family plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery. He was interred next
to Thomas and Alice Rice.
Death of Dean J Rice
Dean J Rice died in 1949
in the Salt Lake General Hospital. Information from hospital records were
information provided on his death certificate much of it in error. It stated he
had only been a resident of Salt Lake City 40 years [1909] and names of parents
unknown. The hospital was probably the county hospital at 2033 South State
Street.
His last residence
was given as 125 West 3rd
South however the city directories showed no
such address but probably it should have been Fourth South as that he
was living at 156 West Fourth South for most of the 1940’s He entered the
hospital om August 13 and died at 2:10 in the morning on the 14th. He was
buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery but on
the 18th, but a plot must have been located as that a week later on August
25 his remains were removed to Mount Olivet Cemetery and
buried next to Walter John Lawson and his parents.
There was no obituary for Dean J
Rice only a death notice in the newspaper “Dean J Rice 78 , 125 W. 4th South
died Sunday at 2:10 am. At a local hospital of causes incident to age.”
Poems
Dean J Rice wrote
several poetic pieces published in Salt Lake Newspapers and composed some
songs. The poems that were published had a social or political commentary
connected with them. The first published was printed May 1901 in the Salt Lake
Herald, called “Where Gold Is Found.”
The red lights flare and
the white lights glare
The main street’s length
a-down
And the noise and shout
of the drinking bout
Rings loud on the
midnight town.
The sure-thing man with
a new “flim flam”
Like an angler lies in wait.”
He is looking sharp
for a likely “mark.”
To bite at the tempting
bait.
The glasses clink and
the revelers drink.
At the bar of the dive
saloon
While to and fro mad
dancers go
O’er the floor of the
dive dance-room.
When hark you! What?
‘Tis a pistol shot.
Then a muttering mob
runs by-
But their man has flown
on the trusty roan.
As fast as its hoods can
fly.
A man is dead, and his murderer
fled-
So ends the revelry.
And a cheated noose
hands limp an loose
From the branch of a
blighted tree.
The red lights pale, and
white lights fail.
In the face of the
new-born day.
And the miners climb up
the hill to the mine.
To drill at the rocks
that Pay.
The second poem published by The Salt Lake
Herald in November 1908 and was a
political commentary on the size of
William Howard Taft who was running for President in 1908. Mentioned at
Teddy Roosevelt who picked Taft as his successor and Frank Hitchcock who ran
Taft’s campaign. The poem was called “Poor
Old Chair.”
“If Taft is elected.
Whom T. R. selected.
The great Teddy bear.
He’s so fat and so bulky.
So ponderously hulky
We fear for the chair.
Let Hitchcock, the
chairman,
Act as Repairman
Let Ted lend a hand.
It’s now for extension.
To meet his mension
Else Taft shall stand.
See well to the legs of
it,
Put extra pegs in it.
Long suffering seat.
It needs to be polished.
It’s almost demolished.
It shows marks of feet.
Make it recline.
As if divining
He’ll always lie back.
It’s bottom strengthen,
Broaden and lengthen,
and there leave a tack D
J Rice
There were probably many
poems that were never published but one lamenting the low wages of school
teachers was printed June 1920 in the Salt Lake Tribune called “The
Schoolmarm’s Vacation.”
Where do the schoolmarms
spend their staid vacations?
That aggregation
erudite, mathematically, correct?
Tell me O Muse-of
Wisdom’s predications.
To spend the summer
where do they elect,
Where o they go?-you say
to elevations
To glacial mountains
where the snows endure,
Where Nature, with
psycho manipulations,
Quiets the nerves and
gives hay fever cure.
To woodlands wild you
say they find distraction
From thoughts of
grammar, rhetoric, and Greek
To such an audience with
satisfaction
Nature in various
languages may speak,’
And there the humble
people of the forest,
Choppers of wood, old hermits,
and that kind,
Will learn their lowly
lot is not the sorest.
After this visitation
for the supermind?
Quit kidding, Muse, you make me tired and weary.
With Woodlands wild and
mountains capped with snow.
Come down to fact, your
only peddling theory.
Anent the schoolmarms-I
know where they go
From what I know about
their yearly earnings.
They’ll hock the jewels
for a three month’s loan.
And what they’ll lay out
on vacation journeying
Won’t take them further
than a meal from home.
– Dean J Rice June 8
Salt Lake
The last poem to make it
into the newspaper was printed shortly after the death of Walter Lawson simply
called “The Invocation”. The poem was published on 29 Sept 1940 and was
allegory of fascism coming to America.
The web of the spider
has turned to steel,
The whisper has grown to
a shout.
The touches once vague,
are beginning to feel.
Like cuts from a cruel
Cossack’s knout.
Grave Patriarch blame
us, for we are to blame.
We idled while tinder
heaps grew.
Now, the ism that set
the old world aflame
Is sparking its flint in
the new.
So, come from the mists
that have hidden you long.
Come back from the past
and be known,
Once more the Gray
Champion hoary, yet strong
With strength that the
stronger has grown.
You’ll face not an
Andros in princely array.
With elegant aids at his
side,
You’ll hear not the drumbeat
nor see the display-
You’ll meet not a
soldiery tide.
The foes in this day
lurk in halls of the state:
The college had called them to teach.
In press and in forum
they write and debate-
Too often in pulpits
they preach.
A spirit subversion to freedom
is here,
The envoys of tyrants run
rife.
Gray champions hasten to
once more appear-
Defender of Liberty’s
life.
Henry
Josiah Rudy “Stockman”
214 South Fourth [Fifth]
West Street
A
one-story brick dwelling at this address was the residence of Henry Josiah Rudy [1826-1910] which was sold to
him by Mormon pioneer, Nathan J Lang [1837-1909] in 1879.
Henry Rudy came to Utah
in October 1862 from Pennsylvania during the Civil War in Captain James S.
Brown Company along with about two hundred immigrants, forty-six wagons, and
about three head of stock. They left Florence, Nebraska and made the trip in
fifty-seven traveling days. He traveled with his wife and seven children.
In 1868 Rudy was
elected to the board of directors for the Jordan Irrigation Company and in 1869
he was called to serves a mission in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania from where
he returned in June 1870 bringing four Saints to Utah. By 1871 he was elected
Justice of the Peace for the Brighton Precinct which was west of the Jordan
River near today’s 21st South.
The 1880 federal census
showed that Henry Rudy resided at the 246th household visited in
the Fifteenth ward and living on Fourth [Fifth] South. He was a “sheep
raiser.” His near neighbors were John
Butterworth, a son of Edmund Butterworth and the family of John W Jenkins a “harness
maker.” In 1885 his only daughter married a son of John W. Jenkins.
Rudy had investments in
mines and lands west of the Jordan River. In 1890 he and Henry Buhring both had
shares in the Alamo Mining Company with Buhring vice-president and Rudy
Secretary. In 1891 Rudy objected paying taxes upon 400 sheep as they were taxed
in the county, and he was not even permitted to drive them through the
city.
Fritz Henning was
boarding at this address in 1895 the same year that Henry Rudy’s
son Franklin “Frank” Henry Rudy, both put up a bond for his grandson
Willis Rudy who was charged with the murder of Albert Barnard in 1892.
The Murder of Albert Barnard
Barnard was a shepherd
for Frank Rudy at “North Point, about twelve miles northwest of Salt Lake” A
quantity of coal was stolen from a neighbor of Rudy and there was a row about
it. A day later in Emigration Canyon, Barnard “expressed the opinion”
that Willis Rudy was the thief of the coal to Barnard Inglebratzen who then told
Rudy what Barnard had said.
The two men “after hot words
came to blows.” Rudy beat Barnard with a club breaking several
ribs and “did him up badly.” Barnard made his way to a ranch in Mountain
Dell where he “received attention and remained for some time until he was
better, and then started on July 24 to go back to the camp in the canyon.
That was the last time ever Barnard was seen alive.”
The rancher who had
nursed Albert Barnard went to Barnard’s camp to check on him “but there was no
one there and the sheep were roaming around at will, the only other inhabitant
of the camp being Barnard’s dog.”
The rancher left but
later returned to find “still no sign of Barnard. The dog was still there
and acted strangely running to and fro and into the brushwood. At a particular
spot he stopped and barked, and it is supposed the dumb animal wanted to
indicate the place where his master was buried. On the fourth day, the rancher
visited the sheep camp again but even the dog had deserted and there was no
sign of Barnard and noting has ever been heard of him since.” Willis Rudy and
Barnard Inglebratzen after the disappearance of Albert Barnard went to Oregon.
In 1895, a man named
George Kellogg who worked “sinking a gas well at Frank Rudy’s ranch” along with
Willis Rudy and Inglebratzen who had returned to Utah. Kellogg made out an
affidavit that he heard Rudy and Inglebratzen “boast of murdering Barnard” and
that “they had “fixed him.” Kellogg stated that the pair said, “they had put
him where he would never trouble anybody again and would say no more about
stealing coal.” From Kellogg’s affidavit, a warrant was issued charging
Willis Rudy and Barnard Inglebratzen with the murder of Barnard.
The newspaper wrote of
the arrest, “Ingebrigtsen is a slender built young fellow who says he is
twenty-one years of age and that his father lives in South Bountiful. He denied
murdering Bernard insisting he would show up and that he was in Wyoming.”
He said, “Barnard was about half crazy anyway,
“Why he called matches Lucifer’s and when he wanted to say that he knowed
anything he said he “snouged it” and that he would be very likely to wander
around or go away without saying anything to anyway.”
Rudy when interviewed by a reporter while in
jail said, “ I have nothing to say, and I was told that no newspaper men would
be allowed to see me.” The reporter noted, “He is quite a youth, only 17
and lives at North Point with his folks.
The accused pair were
released on a $2500 bond and at the preliminary trial held in April 1895,
“Nearly all the population of North Point were present. After a series of
conflicting testimony by witnesses Commissioner Pratt concluded that there was
not probable cause to believe a crime had been committed consequently
there was no ground on which to hold the defendants and they were ordered
discharged.”
Henry Rudy’s Second Marriage
After the death of his first wife Henry Rudy
remarried A newspaper reporter wrote the event was marred by the “Work of
Hoodlums.”
“Henry Rudy aged 74 and
Mrs. Sarah Blyth age 40 were married in the Temple yesterday and their troubles
began upon their arrival home at 214 South Fourth [Fifth] West Street. But
their trouble was not of a domestic nature and was from without. Hardly had
they got into the house when a gang of young hoodlums began battering in the
door and destroyed flowers in the garden.
“When hoodlums in that
vicinity commenced to make life a burden for them, Mr. Rudy stood it as
long as he could and when his door had been nearly battered in and his lawn and
flowerbed badly damaged, he mounted the car came in town and told his troubles
to policemen who promised to look into the matter.”
Mr. Rudy commenting on the action youths
stated, “I suppose they think it is all right” said the old gentleman, “But I
don’t. Had they made a decent call, I would have been glad to have given the
best we had in the house, but not when they acted like a lot of savages. No
sir.”
“The groom was unable to
see why he should be accorded such treatment as he was aware that he had any
enemies and he seemed to think that it would be a good idea to move from
a neighborhood where boys and young men had such little respect for old age and
a solemn occasion.”
The 1900 federal census
enumerated Henry Rudy and his wife Sarah at this address. He was 73 years old,
and she was 43 years old, and he owned this home. By 1903 Henry Rudy sold a portion of his lot to Delbert A Buck, the
“east half of west half of Lot One Block 63 plat A for $2500.” The property
consisted of five rods [82.5 feet] by 10
rods [165 feet] on Third South near Fourth [Fifth] West.
The 1910 federal census
has this family living at “524 West Third South, however, his obituary said his
residence was at 214 South Fourth [Fifth] West.
The Death of Henry Rudy
On 11 June 1910, his obituary was published by
The Salt Lake Herald. “HENRY RUDY DIES AFTER LONG LLNESS-Pioneer Rancher and
Churchman, Who Founded Brighton, is Dead. Henry Rudy, a pioneer of Salt Lake
died at his home, 214 South Fourth [Fifth] West Street, yesterday afternoon at
5 o'clock. He was 84 years of age and had been gradually failing in health for
the last seven or eight months. He is survived by a widow and six grown
children.”
Mr. Rudy was formerly a
resident of Pennsylvania and left his native state to come to Utah in 1862. He
was an active worker in the Mormon church, and in the years 1870 and 1871
filled a mission in his native state. Two years after his arrival in Utah, he
settled what has come to be called Brighton, on the west side of the Jordan
river. Here he cultivated a large tract of land and engaged in sheep and cattle
raising on an extensive scale in which, he was very successful.”
In the boom of the early
days, he sold out his holdings in Brighton and moved to his last residence, 214
South Forth West Street. In retiring from the sheep and cattle raising, he
retired from active life and has given his time and attention to the welfare of
his family.”
“Eleven years ago, he
buried his first wife, Anna Maria Rudy. In 1902 he married Sarah J. Lovekin,
who had nursed him through a long, lingering illness, and who survives him.”
“Six children, three
boys and three girls, survive him. They are John H. Rudy, Orson W. Rudy, Frank
H. Rudy, Mrs. Sarah Canning, Mrs. Katie B. Reed, and Mrs. Christine Jenkins,
all, with the exception of Bishop Frank H. Rudy, who lives in North Point, of
Salt Lake, were present when the end came.””
“The remains may be
viewed at the family residence Sunday morning from 11 to 12. The funeral will
be held from the Fifteenth ward assembly hall Sunday afternoon at 1 o'clock.
Interment will be in City cemetery.
Mrs. Julia Sandberg and
Children
517 West First South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a small adobe one story dwelling on this property. It was
owned by a Swedish woman named Julia Bergstrom Sandberg [1838-1903], the first
wife of wife of John Christian Sandberg [1828-1909].
In 1881 Henry Moore sold
to Thomas Conway Morris [1858-1911] for $400 property “commencing one rod
[16.5 feet] from the northwest corner of Lot Eight thence south 8 ½ rods [145
feet 3 inches] and thence west 3 rods [49 feet 6 inches] back to the
beginnings. Thomas Conway Morris was a son of William Vaughn Morris by his
plural wife Hannah Midgley.
Thomas C Morris in
1885 then sold the same parcel for $1400 to
his half-brother,
William Charles Morris [1844-1889], the son of Sarah Gwilt his father’s first
wife. In 1887 William C Morris, and his wife Diantha sold this parcel to
Julia Sandberg for $1300,
Julia Bergstrom Sandberg
divorced John Christian Sandberg in 1880. Their eldest surviving child was John
Christian Sandberg Jr [1868-1909]. He and their other children, Julia Charlotte
Sandberg Waring [1873-1954], Edward Ferdinand Sandberg [1875- 1909], and Esther
Adelia Sandberg Husbands [1878-1849] were all reared at their mother’s home at
517 West First South after 1887.
John C. Sandberg was a
Swedish Mormon convert who was a cabinet maker and operated a furniture store
for years in Salt Lake City. He was in Salt Lake City by 1865 when he was
mentioned among those with letters unclaimed in the Dead Letter Office. In the
1900 federal census, he stated he immigrated in 1861. Julia Sandberg stated in
the 1900 census that she had immigrated to the United States in
1865.
John C Sandberg had
applied for citizenship in 1870 but was denied because he said he believed that
plural marriage was ordained by God. Chief Justice J. B McKean ruled in
his case, “In this country a man may adopt any religion that he pleases or
reject all religions if he pleases. But no man must violate our laws and plead
religion as an excuse; and no alien should be made a citizen, who will not
promise to obey the laws. Let natives and aliens distinctly understand that in
this country license is not liberty, and crime is not religion.”
Sandberg ‘satisfied’ the
Court that he was not, “a man of good moral character,” and his application was
rejected. Sandberg was a cabinet maker by profession.
In 1875 John C. Sandberg was sent on
a Mormon mission back to Sweden, leaving Julia Sandberg and his children to
fend for themselves.
When he returned the
42-year-old John C Sandberg married a 19-year-old girl in 1880 by whom he had
eight additional children. It is not clear whether Julia and he were divorced
before this marriage. John C Sandberg and Julia’s youngest daughter was born in
1878 so if she was divorced it was recent.
The 1880 federal census
listed Julia Sandberg as residing in the Sixteenth ward, divorced, and keeping
a “grocery store” with four children, two sons and two daughters. Her marital
status was given as divorced however ever she often referred to herself as the
widow of John C. Sandberg. In 1881 Julia Sandberg was granted a business
license so she must have supported her family operating he own business .She
must have never made much money as that after buying her house, she often
applied for an “abatement” from paying property taxes on her property. In 1891
Mrs. Julia Sandberg joined others “composed principally of aged and infirmed
persons and widows, who wished their taxes abated because of poverty.”
Mrs. Sandberg had owed $24.20 and said she was a widow when she
was actually a divorced woman.
It doesn’t seem that
John C. Sandberg had much to do with his first family after his second marriage
and they with him. It’s not certain whether he was ordered to pay Julia
Sandberg any alimony as the divorce decree has not be located.
After 1887, Mrs. Julia
Sandberg resided at the home she purchased and here she raised her four
children. She and several of her children when grown were mentioned at this
address of 517 West First South until 1902.
The 1891 city directory
listed her son John C Sandberg Jr. as working as a grocer at 120 West South
Temple while living at home with his mother. His father’s residence was at 112
West South Temple next to the Sandberg Furniture Company. In 1893 this son was
listed as a “packer for the H Dinwoodey Furniture Company which was a
competitor of his father and which both furniture companies had several
lawsuits against one another.
Mrs. Julia Sandberg’s
younger son was already getting in trouble by 1892 when “Edward Sandberg,
a 17-year-old boy was arrested last night [June 13] on suspicion of stealing.
He was seen carrying a large number of cigarette packages and hence his
arrest.”
John C. Sandberg Jr.
left home by 1895 and moved to Spokane, Washington where he was listed as a
laborer, rooming in at “the Railroaders Home”. He eventually returned to Utah
and moved to Manti in 1901 after marrying Agnes Hoggan in Salt Lake City. “The
employees of the San Pete Valley Railway Company presented to Mr. and Mrs. J.
C. Sandberg as a wedding present a Dresden chocolate set of fifteen pieces. Mr.
Sandberg has been an employee of the company for a number of years, and this
kind act of his fellow employees shows that he is well thought of by
all.”
Mrs. Julia Sandberg’s
other three children remained with their mother into the Twentieth Century. The
youngest daughter Esther Sandberg was mentioned in 1894 as being a member of
the “Westminster School” at the Presbyterian Church “of Fourth [Fifth] West.”
The family may have become “Jack Mormons” [inactive] after Mrs. Julia Sandberg’s
divorce as none of her children remained members of the Mormon Church. The
article stated that Esther Sandberg was part of a church benefit with a number
of other girls “for the benefit of a young colored girl in the South who is
receiving her education through the efforts of the class.” Later in 1895,
Esther Sandberg was listed among the graduates of Franklin School located on
the southwest corner of Seventh [Eighth] West on Second South, “who were
promoted from the district schools and are now eligible for entrance as
students at the High School. .
However, her son Edward
Sandberg found himself in newspapers for various reasons.
In 1895 a “hack driver”
James M. Wood was indicted for assault with the intent to commit murder by
stabbing Edward F Sandberg with a pocketknife three times on, October 19th. The quarrel involved a prostitute named “Black Rose”
Brown.
Rose Brown
Rose Brown was already
in the newspapers from an 1894 incident with Sim Duggins [1861-1927] a
well-known saloon man of Provo resident of Provo. Duggins using the aliases of
J.C. and “Jack” was arrested by the police after being found in “a house
of ill-fame with a girl who called herself Rose Brown.”
Rose Brown and Sim Duggins
were arrested by the police in a house on State Street “kept by one Madam
Angell while they were occupying a room where both were partly undressed, and
the general circumstances were of a compromising nature.”
Duggins was found
guilty in June 1895 of fornication and was sentenced to nine months in prison
although part of his sentence was later commuted. Sim Duggins would later in
1896 be arrested as being complicit in the death of Eveline Bonnett who died
from having an abortion performed in Dr. William McCoy’s office at the West
Side Drug Store on Second South. In 1896 Rose Brown had been arrested
again for prostitution and allowed to leave town in lieu of being jailed.
However, in October 1895
Rose Brown was evidently involved with James “Jim” Woods who jealous of her
speaking to Edward Sandberg, quarreled with him and then stabbed him.
“His Anger Was Aroused
and He Stabbed His Supposed Rival- Two Ugly Wounds- The stabber Escaped
Through the White House Saloon.”
“In that still hour of
the morning, when the city within the city turns out and the streets are given
over to the night hawks, the night line hack drivers, the soiled doves, and the
overzealous searchers after pleasure or sudden wealth, there was a stabbing
affray on Main Street and as a consequence, one hack man has escaped from the
police and another is laid up with a severe wound under his left arm. Jim Woods
is the stabber and Teddy Sandberg the stabbed.” Teddy is a diminutive
form of Edward, and this is the only occasion he was referred to by that
nickname rather than as “Ed”.
“From the story of
Sandberg, it appears that he was standing on the White House Corner just before
1 o’clock this morning [October 19] when a sporting woman came up and spoke to
him. She inquired if he had seen a certain man, who she had been intimate with
for a few days. He answered in the negative and dismissed the matter.”
“A minute later,
however, Jim Woods, who was driving another night liner, came up to him and,
with his ire aroused because his fairy had dared to speak to another man, he
told Sandberg that if he ever spoke to the woman again, he would do several
unmentionable things to him.”
“Sandberg protested
innocence of any desire to speak with the woman and told Woods he was welcome
to her chaste society without interference from that quarter.
“Woods called him a liar
and immediately there was a warm exchange of words, ending in blows. After a
few seconds Woods suddenly broke away and ran through the White House saloon.
Sandberg shook himself together and called out, “Boys I’m stabbed.” The White
House Hotel was located at 204 South Main Street.
“The night liners
laughed at him. They thought he was ‘putting on.’ But he felt blood running and
was pained under the left arm. A few seconds later he was in Smith’s Drug store
[179 South Main Street] pulling off his coat and exhibiting an undershirt
soaked with blood, mad calling for somebody to stop him from bleeding to death.
Dr. [Frank E.] Root was called and found that the injury was serious, but the knife
had not penetrated far enough for make a mortal wound.”
“Woods made his escape
through the White House saloon and into the dark block.”
“Officer [William M.]
Carman was notified of the occurrence and summoned Officer [Joseph R] Busby to
his assistance. The two officers however were unable to find their man and it
is presumed that his friends have hidden him by this time, and he will lay up
until he wind sets in his quarter.”
“Soon after the
occurrence, the fairy whose amours were the cause of all the trouble appeared
upon the scene, her dark locks floating around, and inquired for the
particulars. When told that the reckless Woods had done it all out of
green-eyed jealousy over herself, she called up the fade remnant of a blush,
and laughed gleefully at her power.”
Another account of the
attack on Edward Sandberg called Rose Brown the “Black Rose”.
“A Hickman Stabbed. Jim
Woods Murderously Assaults Ed. Sandberg. A Woman Named Black Rose at the Bottom
of the Affair- The Assailant Eludes the Police.”
“A dispute between two
rival hack men over the right of one to address the man’s girl,
culminated in a murderous assault at 1:30 this morning [October 19] on
the White House corner by Jim Woods upon Ed Sandberg. The latter was cut in
three places and removed to 51 West Third South, where his wounds, the
real extent of which cannot be learned at this time, were dressed by Dr. Root.”
“Woods has been
canvassing the hack men for a small loan, and approaching Sandberg, the latter
pleaded he had no money. Then Woods lodged exceptions to liberties he said
Sandberg had taken with Black Rose and challenged him to fight.”
“The latter tried to
debate the question when Woods, drawing a pocket-knife with open blade from his
pocket, opened the murderous attack. He bore down upon Sandberg, whipping the
blade across his neck and leaving an ugly, though flesh wound.”
“Sandberg wheeled and
began to run when another thrust landed in the small of his back which was
followed by a third, that buried the knife just under the shoulder blade as
Sandberg fell.”
“The prostrate man
fought off his assailant in the position with his feet, whereupon Woods rushed
into the White House Saloon and through the back door, making his escape.”
“ With the blood pouring
from his wounds, Sandberg sprinted across the street to Smith’s Drug Store,
where he was taken charge of and subsequently removed to Third South.”
“An examination of his
clothing revealed big rents in several places, and that he did not
furnish material for the Coroner, was due to no lack of murderous exertions of
Wood’s part.’
“The wounds are quite
painful, but Dr. Beers [probably an error as Dr. Root was treating him]
expressed the opinion that the injured man would be able to make the trip to
his mother’s house this morning.”
“Woods who has been in
the city but a few months, bears a bad reputation and his capture will
doubtless be followed by a term in the penitentiary. Witnesses all agree that
the assault was unprovoked.”
Later in the morning of
October 19, Jim Woods was found hiding in a lodging house on Franklin Avenue
[Edison Street] and arrested.
“Sandberg’s Assailant
Caught. Wood’s Held to Answer for His Victim’s Wounds. Jim Woods, the hack
driver who drew his knife across Ed Sandberg’s throat and then plunged it twice
into his victim’s back, after which he made his escape, was overtaken in the
Park City House, Franklin Avenue, at 5 o’clock yesterday morning [October 19]
an removed to the city jail, where he was locked up.”
“The capture was effected
by Sergeant [George R.] Raleigh, who, later in the day, swore to a complaint
before Police Justice [Grant H.] Smith, charging Woods with assault with a
deadly weapon with which to do great bodily harm. The warrant was served to the
accused and at 2 o’clock in the afternoon the prisoner was arraigned in
the presence of a formidable gathering of cabbies, whose sympathies were
arrayed against Woods and who believed him, in view of his latest escapade, a
ripe subject for the penitentiary.”
“Woods entered a plea of
not guilty, whereupon the court fixed his bail at $250, and the accused was
remanded to the city jail, with notice to appear for examination Tuesday next.
Then the friends of the prisoner set out to raise the amount but had not
succeeded when darkness fell about the jail.”
“Sandberg, the wounded
hack man, was removed to his home early in the morning, where Dr. Root is
attending him. The doctor says it is impossible to predict what turn the wound
in the region of the shoulder blade will be, or how serious results of the
stabbing may be. until further developments.”
After Jim Woods was
lodged in jail so was Rose Brown. “Rose Brown Threw Stones. Then an Officer
Threw Her into Prison”- It will cost Rose Brown just $7 to throw stones when
she might have thrown bouquets at the window of her imprisoned lover yesterday
morning [October 23].”
“In default of the
amount which was exacted to her by Judge [Grant H.] Smith in Police court, she
was sent to jail for seven days, where naught separates her from the idol of
her heart but the iron gratings the cover the prison door.”
“Rose is the mischievous
sprite who recently aroused Jim Wood’s jealousy, and who in a fit, undertook to
furnish Ed Sandberg to the Coroner. She had not been permitted to see Woods
since his incarceration, and early yesterday morning was pecking at the window
of his cell with pebbles when an officer appeared and placed her behind bars.
Her Jim will have his trial before Judge Smith today, provided the victim of
his murderous thrusts is able to appear in court.”
Jim Woods trial took
place on November 14. The defense claimed that it was Sandberg that provoked
the fight over his jealousy of Rose Brown and not the other way around.
“As usual there was a woman in the case, and both men sought to bask in the
sunshine of her smiles. Wood, however, seemed to have a corner on the woman’s
affections and when Sandberg found it impossible to get within the distance
flag, the green-eyes monster began to get in his work.”
“Then it was that Sandberg
began to make threats against Wood, and in time they came together. Sandberg
was worsted quickly, and he retaliated by having his rival arrested upon the
charge of assault with intent to murder.”
“This in brief was the
story as told by a large number of witnesses for the defense, but the
jury found Wood guilty of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to do
bodily harm. Wood desired immediate sentence and was given five months in the
penitentiary.”
No more is learned of
Jim Woods however Rose Brown, in 1896, was arrested again charged with
prostitution and was allowed to leave town in lieu of being jailed. Edward
Sandberg was listed in the 1896 city directory as a hack driver living at home. He was called “a hack
man’ in several newspaper accounts also. A hack was a vehicle for hire.
In 1897 the city
directory only listed Mrs. Julia Sandberg and two of her children at home. Her
19-year-old daughter Esther was a milliner or hat maker, and 24-year-old
son Edward F. was listed as a teamster.
The 1898 city directory
listed Julia Sandberg and three of her children at this address. No occupation
was given for her, or her daughter and Edward was listed as a “laborer.”
In 1899 Ed
Sandberg was called to testify as a witness in the murder trial of John H.
Benbrook, charged with the murder of Burton C. Morris, the nephew of William
Vaughn Morris. An account of the trial stated, “Ed Sandberg who seemed to be
about 30 years of age, surprised the court room saying he was 24 and also
unmarried.”
The 1899 city directory
listed Mrs. Julia Sandberg as the widow of John C Sandberg and her daughter
Julia C Sandberg was employed as a clerk in the Walkers Brothers Dry Goods
Company. Edward was listed as laborer and ester had no occupation given for her.
The 1900 federal census
listed 61-year-old Julia Sandberg at this same address, a home which she
owned. She stated she was a widow although she actually was simply a
divorced woman. Three of her grown children were living with her. Julia C Sandberg,
a 27-year-old daughter was a “sales lady.” Her 25-year-old son Edward Sandberg
was a “livery stable man,” and 22-year-old Esther Sandberg had no occupation
given.
Ed Sandberg would
leave home in 1901 as the city directory stated that “Edward F. Sandberg” moved
to Butte Montana. Esther Sandberg married Edward Millard Husbands
[1869-1945] in 1901. She had gone to school with several of his siblings
including Amy Husbands who married George McKeever whose father John lived at
117 South Fifth West Street. They may all have been friends as they all
moved to Spokane, Washington by 1910.
By 1902 Mrs. Julia
Sandberg had moved away herself from 517 West to 366 West Fifth South where her
married daughter Esther Husband was living. Her health may have been failing as
she died 30 October 1903 at 646 Emery Street the residence of her married
daughter Esther Husbands. . The following year Edward Sandberg had
returned to Salt Lake and was rooming at 329 South West Temple working as a
“hack driver”. Mrs. Sandberg was no longer listed in the directory.
After the death of their
mother the family left Block 64 and moved out of state to Spokane
Washington and Butte, Montana.
John Christian Sandberg
Sr died in July 1909 and none of his children by Julia were mentioned in his
obituary.
John C. Sandberg Jr
Coincidently both Julia
Sandberg’s sons John Christian Jr and Edward Ferdinand died in 1909 as did
their father. John C. Jr died in April in Spokane Washington and was buried in
the Salt Lake Cemetery.
“John Sandberg ,
formerly a locomotive engineer on the Sanpete Valley Railroad in this section.,
is lying at the point of death at Spokane, Washington, suffering with cancer of
the hip. Several months ago, he resigned from his work on account of his ill
health, leaving his wife and son with relatives and friends at Manti. He first
took treatment at a sanitarium but was gradually growing worse. He continued to
travel in search of health but was obliged to give up and go to the hospital.
His wife and son were informed of his illness and immediately started for
Washington. Mr. Sandberg has made Manti his home for many years.”
“Funeral serviced to be
held Friday under the auspices of the Old Fellows. Mr. Sandberg had suffered
from Cancer of the hip. He was in Spokane at the time of his death, where he
went for treatment. His widow and little boy and his sisters were at his
bedside when the end came.
“Jack Sandberg or
“Sandy” as he was familiarly called by all fellow employees, was a man whose
heart was as big as an ox, a faithful, tried, and true workman, beloved by all
who knew him and if he had an enemy on earth, it was himself.”
“His last words were “I
am ready to go home.”
Edward F. Sandberg
Edward F Sandberg’s wife
filed for divorce after two years of marriage claiming he had attacked her with
a hatchet. “In a bill for divorce filed in the District Court this morning [6
June 1905] by Mrs. Minnie W Sandberg, she declares that her husband, Edward F
Sandberg, attacked her with a hatchet on June 1, 1905, and cut hand bruised her
arm. She asserts that he knocked her down while they were at their home 547
South West Temple Street.”
“On May 13, she declares
their affairs reached a climax. On that day she says her husband made false
accusations against her and called her names. Since then, she says he has
refused to provide for her. They were married at Pocatello, Idaho May 13, 1903.
Sandberg is said to be owner of considerable personal property.”
Edward F Sandberg died
Island Park Montana, in September 1909 and was buried on the 29th
in the Salt Lake City near his mother’s grave. There were no mention of
his death in the newspapers, but his surviving sisters must have had him
brought back to Salt Lake to be buried.
Julia Sandberg Waring
and Esther Sandberg Husbands
Julia Charlotte Sandberg
was a nurse and must have stayed in Spokane after the death of her brother as
she married in August 1909 a widower Isaac Waring. Her sister Esther Husbands,
and brother-in-law were her witnesses. In the 1910 federal census Julia Waring
was living in Seattle and Esther Husband in Spokane.
Chapter Eight
Notorious Actions at the Albany Hotel
1893 MISCEGENATING FORNICATORS
As with any hotel the
Albany Hotel had its share of sex scandals and criminal behavior within its
walls. One of the more scandalous affairs at the Albany Hotel occurred in late
April 1893. It was so sensational that it was reported in all the local Salt
Lake Papers newspapers because of its taboo subject of an interracial “illicit
affair” between two young African American men and two local white girls.
The scandalous behavior
of the four young people was reported in great detail in both the Salt Lake
Tribune and in the Salt Lake Herald Republican. While white men having sex with
African American prostitutes were not uncommon in Salt Lake City, a sexual
encounter of African American men with white women, was rare.
The newspaper of the
period used racist epithets to show that sexual encounter between black men and
white women were “a particularly disgusting affair.”
Frank “Tex’ Howard and
John “Apples” Smith were the names of
the young black men. Although their ages were never given in news
accounts of the affair, they were described in reports as being “Dusky Romeos”,
“coons”, and being “black as the ace of spades”.
The white girls were
Jennie Rogers, a teen probably 19 years old, from Farmington, Utah and Lizzie
Gardner who was said to have been about 21 years of age As if to somehow
explain the actions of the young women consorting with these young men of
color, they were described as being “white but not of the lily order.”
The black youths and
white girls were referred to as “Miscegenationists”, “Miscegenators”, and
having committed “Miscegenating Fornication” in the accounts of the affair. In
1888, the Utah Territory had passed an anti-miscegenation law that prohibited
marriages between a "negro" and a "Mongolian" [Asian] and a
"white person".
As that the four young
people were not breaking that law by marrying each other, they were charged
with “fornication” which was also illegal in Utah. Not until 2019 were Utah’s
fornication laws repealed.
Because they were charged as “fornicators”,
another newspaper report on the incident called the two mixed race couples a
“Lecherous Quartette”.
The story, as reported
in the papers, alleged that Howard and Smith, Knutsford hotel waiters, had
registered at the Albany Hotel after midnight, in cahoots with the night shift
clerk. The men then sneaked the two local white girls up the back stairs into
the room for a sexual tryst.
The couples were first
spotted at the Beck Street Warm Springs where the Rogers and Gardner were seen
enjoying a “nymphs’ bath”, a euphemism for being nude. The police must have
been alerted as that a patrolman followed the couples to the Albany Hotel. The
patrolman claimed, “suspecting that all was not right”, he then called for a patrol
wagon as back up to arrest all four of the cavorting young people.
There were two varying
accounts of the police arresting the couples. One newspaper account stated that
when the police gained entrance to the room, they caught the “two negroes in
bed with the two white girls.”
Another, probably more
accurate account, stated that when the officers managed to get in to the room,
the windows were “thrust up” and “furtive efforts [were] made by the colored to
escape.” One of the defiant girls who was not named, instead of trying to
escape, resolutely simply exclaimed, “We are caught so we might as well die
game.”
The four were arrested
and taken to police headquarters downtown where they were charged with
fornication. The two men and two women were held on a $Fifth bond each, which
would have been nearly impossible for them to secure. Their crime was so
serious that the case was transferred from the Police Court to the Judge
Charles Zane federal Third District Court jurisdiction.
In July, the U.S. District
Attorney was able to get the bond for Howard and Smith reduced from $500 to
$200 but even that amount, they were not able secure, so they remained in the
state penitentiary waiting for the case to come before the court.
In a news story dated 7
July 1893 printed by the Salt Lake herald Republican called “Forsook the Home”,
more information was found on Lizzie Gardner and Jennie Rogers who appeared to
have been tough customers. While the men languished in the penitentiary, the
District Attorney on May 31st , because of his “kindness of heart and other
humane influence”, asked court that “the
girls in question be released on their recognizance that they might enter the
Women’s Rescue Mission House.”
The request was granted,
and Rogers and Gardner were released to the Rescue Mission. “In a few days
however, they began again to pine for the broad avenues of unrighteousness and
stating that the home was worse than the penitentiary they left. Since that
time nothing has been heard of them.”
In late August, the case
appeared for a preliminary hearing for the couples to make their pleas. Jennie
Rogers, the teen from Farmington, was the only one who was not in court that
day as that she was “out of the city to attend a sick relative.” Howard and
Smith were in court along with Lizzie Gardner who was described as “fallen deep
into the mire of degradation.”
The Salt Lake
Herald-Republican stated that “The male defendants have been in the
penitentiary awaiting trial for the past four months while the girls were out on
their own recognizance.” So, the attorney representing Howard and Smith asked
that the men be released on their own recognizance, but it was denied so they
had to remain in the Sugar House prison until their court date in September.
The court reporter made
personal comments regarding John Smith’s appearance. He reported that Smith
“was attired in the height of fashion and his immaculate shirt front formed a
striking contrast to the painful darkness of his epidermis.” The reporter also
remarked that Smith seemed to be in a very happy frame of mind” when he entered
a plea of not guilty. However, the reporter additionally referred to him as a
“coon” and “several shades darker than the Ace of Spades.” In contrast Frank
Howard was simply described as “also colored, and of the dude variety.”
Howard, Gardner, Smith,
and Rogers were scheduled to be on the 26 September docket for the Third
District Court. They were not alone as on that day, however, as there were
twelve other men and women appearing before Judge Zane on various charges of
adultery, fornication, and incest. However, it was noted when court was
arraigned Gardner and Rogers, “the
fragile females” were absent.
The Deseret Evening
News, in an article dated 26 September 1893 called “The Colored Dudes” stated
“The two white women, their companions [Howard and Smith] in the case have been allowed to go with the
hope they will reform.” Whether the
“wayward” girls reformed or not is unknown as no further information has been
found on these characters.
Howard and Smith
appeared in court to answer for the crime of fornication at the Albany Hotel
from last April 30th. John Smith’s attire was again remarked upon in news
accounts. He was described as “John Smith, another colored dude, with
immaculate shirt front…”
When the defense
attorney asked the court that Howard and Smith be tried together, Judge Charles
Zane thought it was an unusual request as that the men were being charged with
committing fornication. The Sexual implication evidently amused and bewildered
the justice.
“Attorney Corey appeared
for the ‘coons’ and when Howard’s case was called, he said, “Your honor, is it
agreed that these men be tried jointly.” Judge Zane asked, “What is the nature
of the charge?” Corey answered, “Fornication.”
That puzzled the judge
and he responded, “Well I hardly think that would be a joint act as far as
those men are concerned.” Nonplus the defense attorney said, “I think we can
show how it is, your honor, before long.”
Judge Zane replied, “I hardly think so. I
think they had better be tried separately.”
The reported then
observed how everyone in the courtroom laughed at the judge’s sexual
insinuation, all except Corey “who
blushed violently.”
The Howard’s case was
presented before an all-white male jury who found him guilty. Smith must have
not seen the point of a trial and he changed his plea to guilty.
Back in court the next
day, on 27 September, Howard and Smith were sentence to three months in the
state penitentiary in Sugar House. They
were finally released on.
11 December 1893, after
being incarcerated for nearly seven months.
No more is known of their histories.
The reputation of the
Albany Hotel was spared, as that Jim Hegney said he was totally unaware of the
“two colored men and two white girls in his house” until after their arrest. He
said that a boy was in charge of the desk at night and against strict orders.
He gave the men rooms supposing that they would all be gone early the next
morning and that “no one would be any the wiser.”
The following are
transcripts of the newspaper accounts as found in the Salt Lake Tribune and the
Salt Lake Herald Republican –Republican
1 May 1893 Salt Lake
Tribune “Criminalities of the Day” A particularly disgusting affair was
unearthed by the police at the Albany hotel at early hour yesterday morning.
Two Negro waiters from the Knutsford went to the hotel and registered and
Officer Danner saw two girls sneak into the hotel by the side door. Suspecting
that all was not right, he summoned Sergeant Wire and the patrol wagon. They
gained admittance to the rooms and found the two Negroes in bed with the two
white girls. They were taken to the police station where the girls gave the
names of Lizzie Gardner and Jennie Rogers. The colored boys gave their names as
Frank Howard and John Smith, however in
everyday life is known as “Apples” and the other is named Evans but is called
“Tex” by his friends. A charge of fornication will probably lodged against
them.
2 May 1893 Salt Lake
Tribune “THE MISCEGENATIONISTS TRANFERRED” This article simply reported that
the case was to be heard before Commissioner Pratt and a grand jury and not in police court.
3 May 1893 Salt Lake
Herald Republican “A Lecherous Quartette” “Two Negroes and two white girls
bound over” -The examination of John Smith and Frank Howard, colored, and
Jennie Rogers and Lizzie Gardner, two white girls, on the charge of
fornication, was held before Commissioner Pratt yesterday afternoon. Benner
Smith, prosecuting, and Attorney Corey defending. The offense is alleged to
have been committed at the Albany Hotel on Saturday night and the evidence
against the lecherous quartette was very strong and the court held them all to
await the action of the grand jury fixing their bonds at $500 each.
3 May 1893 Salt Lake Tribune “Boring the Prison Walls” “Miscegenators
Bound Over”-One of the nastiest cases of youthful depravity ever tried in
Commissioner Pratt’s office was the one yesterday being the fornication of John
Smith and Jennie Rogers, Frank Howard, and Lizzie Gardiner. Both the men in the
case are as black as the ace of spades and the girls are white but not of the
lily order. From the evidence of Sergeant Wire and Officer Danner who made the
arrests and from the testimony of others it seems that on Sunday Morning a
little after midnight the two men mentioned in the charge appeared at the
Albany Hotel at Fifth West [today Sixth West] and Second South where they
engaged rooms and unlocking the doors came down stairs again. Where the two
girls sneaked up the back way and later the dusky Romeos did the same. The
officers had been spotting them, it seems, from the warm springs where they
enjoyed a “nymphs’ bath and about 2 a.m. they knocked on the door of the rooms
but was not admitted for a few moments when windows were thrust up and
ineffectual efforts made by the vari-colored quartette to escape, when one of
the girls said, “We are caught so we might as well die game.” The evidence
following was to proved the guilt of the parties which nearly established and
the Commissioner bound all over to the Grand Jury in a bond of $Fifth each. The
case tried yesterday was John Smith and Jennie Rogers, but the lawyer for the
defense waived examination of the case of Howard and Lizzie Gardiner until
today. All four of the culprits were committed to the custody of the United
States Marshall who took them to the pen. All through the trial the girls
seemed to hugely enjoy the fun though at the last their levity seemed to die
out. Jennie Rogers is from Farmington and claims to be 19, though she doesn’t
look 17. The other girl is probably 21.
4 May 1893 Salt Lake
Herald Republican “It seems that the proprietor of the Albany hotel was totally
unaware of the two-colored men and two white girls in his house on Saturday
night until after the arrest of the quartette. A boy was in charge of the desk at
night and against strict orders of the proprietor, he gave the party rooms
supposing that they would all be gone early the next morning and that no one
would be any the wiser as they left instructions to be called. The police did
the calling however and the plans of the enterprising clerk were knocked gally
west.” [The term ‘gally west’ meant “into destruction or confusion.’]
7 July 1893 Salt Lake
Herald-Republican Forsook the Home Unsuccessful Attempt to Reform Two Wayward
Girls- On motion of District Attorney Judd, the bonds of John Smith and Frank
Howard, (Colored), who were indicted by the late grand jury on the charge of
fornication were reduced from $500 to $200 yesterday. Smith and Howard are a
couple of colored dudes who were charged with committing the crime in question
with two white girls named Lizzie Gardner and Jennie Rogers. On May 31, Judge
Judd’s kindness of heart and other humane influence prompted him to ask that
the girls in question be released on their recognizance that they might enter
the Women’s Rescue Mission House. This order was entered, and the girls were
taken to the home. In a few days however, they began again to pine for the
broad avenues of unrighteousness and stating that the home was worse than the
penitentiary they left. Since that time nothing has been heard of them.
27 August 1893 Salt Lake
Herald-Republican Arraignments-The male defendants have been in the
penitentiary awaiting trial for the past four months while the girls were out
on their own recognizance.
27 August 1893 Salt Lake
Tribune “A Lot of Arraignments Miscegenating Fornication: When the names of
John Smith and Jennie Rogers were called, only the former responded, but he did
so with alacrity. Smith is several degrees darker than the “ace of spades” but
was attired in the height of fashion and his immaculate shirt front formed a
striking contrast to the painful darkness of his epidermis. The woman in the
case is white but she and the coon are charged with having committed
fornication on April 30th 1893. Smith seemed to be in a very happy frame of
mind and entered a plea of not guilty. The girl was absent having been called
away for the city to attend a sick member of her family, but her attorney
stated that she would be ready for trail when the case is called. ANOTHER OF
SAME THE SORT: Frank Howard, also colored, and of the dude variety, and Lizzie
Gardner, a white girl, who appeared to have fallen deep into the mire of
degradation, were then called, and entered pleas of not guilty to a similar
charge. Attorney Corey will defend the quartette. After the arraignment he
asked that Smith and Howard he released on the own recognizance pending their hearing but as Judge Howart
stated the case would be tried at an early date, the coveted order was not
made.
27 September 1893 Salt
Lake Tribune Third District Court The Miscegenators-The next case called was
that of Frank Howard, the ebony hued dude, charged with committing fornication
with Lizzie Gardner, a white girl, in this city on April 30th . Both John
Smith, another colored dude, with immaculate shirt front charged with a similar
crime with Jennie Rogers, also white, was in court but the fragile females were
absent. Attorney Corey appeared for the “coons” and when Howard’s case was called,
he said “Your honor it is agreed that these men be tried jointly.”- Judge Zane,
“What is the nature of the charge?”- Mr., Corey, “Fornication.”- Judge Zane,
“Well I hardly think that would be a joint act as far as those men are
concerned.”- Mr. Corey, “I think we can show how it, your honor, before long.”
-Judge Zane, “I hardly think so. I think they had better be tried separately.”
Everybody laughed at this except Mr. Corey who blushed violently, and the
hearing was ordered to proceed as to Howard. The evidence was strongly on the
side of the prosecution and it took only a short time to get the case to the
jury and for them to return a verdict of guilty. Smith then withdrew his former
plea of not guilty and entered a plea of guilty without further ado. They were
given three months each in the penitentiary.
12 December 1893 Salt
Lake Tribune
Served Their Time Frank
Howard and John Smith the two dude coons who were sent up from the Third
District Court on 27 September for three months for fornication with two white
girls were released from the penitentiary yesterday upon the expiration of
their sentence.
Lena Carter aka Mamie Evans
Public interest in Henry E. Carter faded until the fall of
1894 when his 20-year-old daughter, Glenna Amy “Lena” Carter, found herself in
trouble with the law, charged with fornication with two men in the Albany
Hotel. In newspaper accounts, she was later widely known as “Mamie Evans” while
working as a “demimonde,” an old-fashioned term for a prostitute. Although
known as Mamie Evans “Her true name was Lena, but like other girls who tread
the sinful pave, she had a number of aliases.”
Henry E. and Ada Carter’s daughter “Glenora” [1874-1897]
went by the name “Lena Carter. At the age of sixteen years, Lena Carter was
said to have married a man in Minnesota but as soon as a baby girl named Ruby
J. Stansbury was born in May 1890 the
couple separated. It is more likely that the child was born out of wedlock.
Lena Carter’s mother raised “the little child the result of the unfortunate
alliance.”
According to her parents, Lena Carter left her Salt Lake
home at 397 Riverside Avenue in Salt Lake City, in 1892 “much of the time
leading a wayward life.” It was reported that she had left home because her
parents wanted her to marry man she did not like, and therefore they could not
“keep her at home.” Newspaper accounts would report that Lena Carter was said
to have had “very respectable connections” although she was “wayward before she
entered a life of shame.”
Lena Carter first came to the attention the public when she
was arrested along with two men, 33-year-old Hugh McKernan, an unemployed Rio Grande railroad laborer and a
22-year-old Mormon named William
Leatham, at Jim Hegney’s Albany Hotel on the night of 22 October 1894.
Hugh McKernan
Hugh McKernan [1861-?] was of Irish descent, born in
Illinois, according to the 1900 federal census. No occupation was listed for
him suggesting that at that time he was unemployed. The only Irish “McKernon”
listed in the 1860 Census of Illinois was enumerated in Clark County which may
have been his birthplace. Being a former railroad worker, that line of work
probably brought him to Utah. He was not listed in the 1893 Salt Lake
City Directory, nevertheless in 1894 he was listed as rooming at the Albany
Hotel. He may have once been a part of the Industrial Army.
William Alexander Leatham
William Alexander Leatham, [1872-1955] on the other hand,
was a native of Utah. His parents were Scottish immigrants and Mormon converts.
The 1894 City directory showed that he was boarding at 543 West on Third South,
near his parents’ residence and that he was employed as a “machinist”.
How these two men became acquainted is unknown but probably
it was from drinking and carousing in the various saloons on Fifth [Sixth]
West.
However, “The arrest of the trio was novel, in view
of the act that the police at the time were looking for parties who had
assaulted and robbed a Chinaman. The trail led to the Albany Hotel, and the
officers found McKernan, Latham and Miss Carter occupying a room together.”
Wah Lee’s Chinese Laundry
On a Monday night, October 22, Will Leatham was alleged to
have stolen $4.95 from “Wah Lee” who operated a Chinese Laundry next door to
the Albany Hotel on Second South. Leatham claimed he did it on a “spree.”
Whether McKernan participated in the robbery was vague in newspaper
accounts.
Wah Lee reported the theft to the police who then tracked
Leatham back to McKernan’s room at the Albany Hotel. Upon entering the room to
arrest Leatham, the officers found Leatham and McKernon in bed with Lena
Carter. This discovery led to the trio being arrested and charged with
fornication. Leatham and McKernan were also charged with robbery as that
“Leatham had blood on his neck and clothing and admitted having been in the
Celestials wash house.”
The Arrest
When reporters realized that Lena Carter was the daughter
of “General Carter of the former Industrial Army”, the news of the arrest of
the trio made it a more interesting and a scandalous story.
The Salt Lake Tribune published an article of the arrest on
25 October 1894, stating that “Lena Carter, lately discovered in the Jim Hegney
Block with at least one too many lovers,” was charge with “excessive
fornication”. Lena Carter protested her arrested, claiming she had been
“drugged before the debauch began.”
Trial of the Men
The two men had a double charge against them, one for
robbery and the other of fornication and the next day, both Leatham and
McKernan were released from jail after securing a bail bond but Lena Carter,
who’s bond was set at $100, wasn’t able to raise the amount and “failed to
secure her liberty” until days later.
In an article dated four days later on October 29th, it was
reported that when Carter, Leatham, and McKernon appeared in a police court
hearing, the “ménage de trios pled not guilty to the charge of fornication and
the men also plead not guilty to the charge of robbery.
On December 6, Leatham and McKernan went on trial for the
robbery of the Chinese Laundry before a jury. The case came before Third
District Judge George W. Bartch with Assistant District Attorney Andrew Howat
acting as prosecutor. The “defendants were defended by Judge [John B.] Anderson
assisted by Attorney Morris Sommer.”
Due to insufficient evidence, the case of petit larceny against McKernan
was dismissed by the prosecution but the trial of Leatham was to
proceed. While the evidence against McKernan was insufficient to convict
him of robbery, he still had to answer to the charge of fornication.
His attorney, John B. Anderson claimed that the
prosecutor’s case of fornication was invalid. He argued that the charging
document against McKeran was so flawed that it shouldn’t be used to convict
him. While granting that the factual basis of the point that fornication
had occurred, Anderson argued that the crime committed was not a “public
offense”.
Anderson contended that “A single act of unchasity, as
charged in this case, did not constitute fornication at common law. It must be
notorious living together in a way that would be scandalous before the public.”
The court took the “argument” under advisement but later
overruled the motion. Hugh McKernan then entered a not guilty plea, and his
trial was then set for December 10.
William Leatham’s Trial
After McKernan’s robbery charges were dismissed, Will Leatham
was then tried alone for the robbery of the Chinese businessman. The amount
that was stolen was stated at various times between $3.75 and $4.95.
When several Chinese witnesses for the prosecution were
about to be sworn in, Leatham’s defense attorney, Morris Sommer, “jumped up and
interposed a somewhat novel objection.”
Sommer asked the Chinese interpreter, who had been selected
by the prosecuting attorney, “Do you believe in a supreme being that if you
translate any of the testimony of these boys wrongly your joss or our joss will
punish you?” The term Joss referred to a Chinese religious statue or image that
represented a deity.
Attorney Andrew Howart objected to the question, telling Morris
Sommer, “Do not be so declamatory. We may ask you if you believe in a supreme
being.” This flustered the assistant attorney, and he answered back, “It is
none of your business.”
Howart countered saying, “If this man translates wrongly,
he is subject to the pains and penalties for perjury. Religious qualification
was done away with. You may as well ask the jury if they believe in a supreme
being.”
Morris Sommer responded, “I am not so eloquent a speaker as
my friend from Scotland, but I could stand up here from now until 10 o’clock
tonight and read authorities on this subject.” Howat retorted, “You would not
read any from Utah,” and Sommer insisted, “I can read them from California,
Nevada, and other places.”
After some further banter, Judge Bartch sustained the
objection of the prosecution and noted the exception by Attorney Sommer.
After that heated exchange, the trial of Leatham proceeded
and “the complaining witness and other Chinamen” gave ‘”their testimony through
the interpreter”.
The
jury deliberated for three hours before returning a verdict of guilty of petit
larceny for Leatham. While he was found guilty of the robbery, he was acquitted
of the charge of fornication, although McKernan had to go to trial for that
offence.
Hugh McKernan’s Trial
Hugh McKernan’s fornication trial occurred in the Third
District Court on Thursday, December 13, 1894. Assistant United States
Attorney J.T. Richards was the prosecutor while John B. Anderson was attorney
for the defense.
The two arresting police officers testified that while
searching for McKernan in order to arrest him for the Chinese laundry robbery,
they found him in a bedroom “with the Carter woman.” McKernan then took the
stand in his own defense and denied that he had “criminal relations with his
companion”.
As it was “late in the day”, the court adjourned for the
evening “so the case was finished the next morning”. At that time, the jury
quickly returned a verdict of not guilty “after being out but a few minutes.”
Although Hugh McKernan was acquitted on both counts of
robbery and fornication, Will Leatham still had to appear before the Third
District Court for sentencing for the crime of robbery.
William Leatham’s Sentence
Prior to the passing of the sentence, Leatham’s
attorney spoke to the court. Morris Sommers, “said a few words in mitigation of
punishment reminding the court that Leatham was convicted upon the unsupported
testimony of a Chinaman.” The defense further stated that the defendant
had a job to which he could now go and asked that a fine be imposed instead of
imprisonment.
The fact that Leatham was a Mormon and potentially had a
job was most likely a compelling and persuasive argument, as that in 1894
unemployment among single men was extremely high.
The Andrew Howart, the prosecuting attorney even spoke on behalf
of Leatham. He told the court that he “believed the defendant committed the
offense more out of a spirit of bravado than as a thief by instinct.” However,
in reproof, Howart said, that he was inclined to think that Leatham had been
“spending some of his money in riotous living, instead of bestowing all upon
his parents.”
Nevertheless, the prosecutor acquiesced to the motion of
the defense and stated, “If, however, the court thought a fine would serve in
this case, he would, himself, not offer any objection on the part of the
prosecution.”
In an unusual move, Judge Bartch let Leatham off with a
simple fine. The Judge stated his “surprise at seeing a young man of the
defendant’s parentage and apparent respectability in such a position and gave
him good counsel. Having obtained from him the promise that he would conduct
himself well in the future the court imposed a fine of $20 and the cost of the
case which amounted to $40. Leatham was then given thirty days in which to pay
his fine, “failing which he was to be arrested and committed.”
Aftermath of the Affair at the Albany Hotel
Will Leatham went on to live a long and unsullied life. He
joined the army in 1898 to fight in the Spanish American War. The 1900 census
stated that William Leatham was a single, 28-year-old miner living at home with
his parents at 509 West 3rd South Street. He would later marry but never had
children. He died 1955 in Salt Lake City, at the age of 83 years, just two days
after his youthful indiscretion. He was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Less was known about Hugh McKernan. The Salt Lake City
Directory for Salt Lake City showed no occupation for McKernan in 1896 and in
1897 he was not even listed as being in the city. He was listed again in 1898
but again with no occupation given.
The 1899 city directory listed McKernan boarding at the
Albany Hotel and listed him as a bartender probably in the Hegney Saloon. It is
interesting that when McKernan became a bartender in 1899, he also became a
Democratic delegate along with James Hegney.
In the 1900 United States Census Hugh McKernan was listed
as a 39-year-old man. He said his parents were Irish and thus he may have been
a Catholic which would have been a reason that James Hegney employed him as a
bartender.
McKernan was still listed as an Albany Hotel bartender in
1902 but he was not recorded in the 1903 City Directory, and he seems to have
disappeared into history. There was a Hugh R McKernan who died in Cochise
County, Arizona in 1913 but it’s not known if he was the same person.
As for Lena Carter her short life was more tragic. She was
not convicted on the charge of fornication but during the two and half years of
her remaining life she worked as a “street walker” in Salt Lake and also in
various houses of ill repute in Ogden. Newspaper accounts mentioned her various
aliases as being “Mamie Carter and Mamie Evans.”
Lena Carter as Mamie Evans a Demimonde
Lena Carter was described in various accounts as being
“tall and fair and very prepossessing.” Additionally, “She was a beautiful girl
with a Venus like figure and glossy auburn hair. Other accounts stated her hair
was golden. She seemed to have had a pleasant personality for “among the
demimondes”; that class of women considered to be of doubtful morality and
social standing, “she was popular but inclined to be boisterous.” Among the
girls with whom she associated, “she was a favorite.”
After the October 1894 affair with McKernan and Leatham at
the Albany Hotel, the next account of Lena Carter was found in the dismissal of
old criminal cases that were “not expected would come to trial.”
In February 1895 Carter’s Salt Lake City criminal case was
dismissed along with the fornication cases of the “Miscegenationists”, Frank
Howard, Lizzie Gardner, John Smith, and Jennie Rogers, who had been arrested at
the Albany Hotel in 1893 also for fornication.
Whether Carter was working as a prostitute at the time she
was found in bed with McKernan and Leatham or whether she went into the sex
trade due to her “fallen reputation” is unknown. However, because of the
notoriety of her father, Carter would have been widely recognized in Salt Lake.
She moved to Ogden and started using the name “Mamie Evans.”
Mamie Evans
Lena Carter as Mamie Evans came to Ogden in 1895 where she
resided for a year while working as a prostitute on “wicked Electric Avenue”
which was known as the “tenderloin district” located behind Twenty-Fifth
Street. At this time, she became an associate of 30-year-old Belle
London, a notorious Ogden Madam of Electric Avenue in Ogden.
Belle London was a pseudonym for Mrs. Dora Belle Topham,
the wife of a Saloon owner and gambling house, named Thomas Topham. A decade
later she would become the owner and manager of Salt Lake’s infamous red-light
district called the “Stockade” on West First and Second South.
In October 1896, while working in a brothel at “No. 6
Electric Avenue”, Mamie Evans began to “associate with another woman of her
class, named Dutch Moll or Gold Tooth Alice”. The two “sporting women became
well known” in Ogden.
For many months Mamie Evans was also an “inmate” of a
brothel known as the “Red Light.” The Red Light was “a house of very unsavory
reputation in a dingy alley back of the city jail. A blood red lantern shines
down the alley after dark and beckons the unwary with its evil eye,” and “Mamie
Carter was its most brilliant luminary.”
Belle London also worked out of the Red-Light brothel along
with Mamie Evans and they were referred to as “sisters in sin.”
In the fall of 1896, the police ordered “Mamie Evans” to leave Ogden “because she proved a siren to
a couple young men who seemed unable to resist her.” The police report of this
incident stated that some young men had “got mixed up with her and last October”
and “she was ordered to leave town.” Although she went back down to Salt Lake
City, “her admirers followed her. The Salt Lake police interfered and saved the
young men.”
John “Jack” Ross
That autumn, Mamie Evans also met her future lover and
murderer, John Ross, [1870-1897] who also went by the name “Jack” and
“Johnny.” When Henry Carter and his wife were asked if they knew their
daughter’s killer, they claimed they “knew nothing about the assassin but heard
he boarded over the winter with a family named Carter, who lived at 323 West
Fourth [Fifth] South Salt Lake City. They had only heard that their daughter
was associating with him.”
Jack Ross however claimed to have been her husband but
there was no evidence of a marriage. In 1897 Jack Ross had been telling his
acquaintances that he and Mamie Carter had been married for seven months, which
at the time would have been in the fall of 1896. It may have simply been the
amount of time they were cohabitating. He was living with her in the “Red
Light” bordello behind the Ogden city jail for several months after she left
Salt Lake to return to Ogden. Ross wasn’t working but rather was living off of
the money that Mamie Evans made through prostitution. Her fellow “sisters in
sin” told her she was foolish to support Ross as she had tired of him.
Jack Ross, was considered “tall and handsome.” He was
described as being “6 feet in height and about 160 pounds, smooth shaven, light
blue eyes and dark hair and about 27 years of age.” Ross was probably from
Ohio, where he said he had relatives living in the town of Hamilton.
However, the police were not even certain that John Ross
was his real name as that he had been also an actor and a “theatrical man.” One
newspaper account stated that he “at one time he had been cast for a part in
the “Noble Outcast” under the name of M. T. Adams,” in J. S. Lindsay Dramatic
Company, a popular Utah touring theater company.
Mamie Evans also was thought to have been “at one time on
the stage.” Perhaps this was how they met, as that “loose women” were often
hired as actresses. However, they met, by February 1897 they were having a love
affair. Letters and a telegram from Lena Carter to Jack Ross showed a
passionate but stormy affair.
Ross left Ogden at the start of December after finding work
as an advance man for a theater company. He traveled to southern Utah to post
advertisement for upcoming productions of the “J.S. Lindsay Dramatic Company”
He worked as an “advance agent for the theater company” from December through
February. An advance agent’s job was to go to various towns where the
company was to perform and put-up play bills and other advertisements. It was a
low paying situation.
Mamie Evans continued to live in the Red-Light bordello
behind the Ogden city jail, for several months prior to going to Park City. She
resided in Park City only to return to Salt Lake and Ogden three weeks before
she was murdered on 24 April 1897.
Jack Ross was in Fillmore, Utah for much the first part of
1897 while Lena Carter had gone to Park City to earn money to pay off some
debts. Ross, not having received any letters from Lena Carter while he was away
in Fillmore, wrote to her in Park City. On February 16 he accused her of having
found another lover as perhaps the reason for the absence of her letters to
him.
Events Leading Up to the Death of Mamie Evans
Lena Carter [Mamie Evans], after receiving Ross’ letter of
accusations that she hadn’t written, sent off a telegram, which would have been
an expensive way to communicate to him. The brief message stated, “Park City,
Feb. 17 Johnny Ross care of J.S. Lindsey Co. Fillmore, Utah. Have answered
every letter. Something matter with mail. Eleven days since received letter.
Mamie Evans”
Ross also wrote to Lena Carter’s friend, Nora Dee,
inquiring whether Lena’s feeling for him had changed. Nona Dee replied back to
answer his concerns regarding Lena Carter’s [Mamie Evans] feelings for him.
Her letter read: “Park City Feb.19, 1897 Mr. Johnnie Ross.
Mr. Ross your unexpected letter came to hand on the 16th, contents noted. If it
was information you would like, I will give you all I can. I know Mamie answers
every one of your letters and that there had been 11 days that she has not had
one letter from you. I can assure you that there was no one that can take your
place in Mamie’s heart. Her one thought was of you and all we hear from her was
‘Johnnie will soon be here’.”
“There was something wrong with the mail. It was no fault
of Mamie. The poor girl feels just as bad as you do. When she received your
last letter, she cried like her poor heart would break to think that she writes
to you, and you don’t get them.”
“I don’t know what more I can say, any more than for
Mamie’s sake don’t go up north with the company until you see Mamie for it
would just kill her. I hope you will soon be with us in Park City. Mamie sends
her regards and says if you come here, she will do all she can for you. Yours
Truly Nora Dee”
Jack Ross returned to Salt Lake City by April 1897 while Mamie
Evans was still in Park City. However, he was unemployed and destitute. He
“wore an old suit of clothes. His shoes were worn out and he had the appearance
of being pretty well down on his luck. His hands were dirty and looked though
he had recently seen some pretty hard work.” This suggested he may have tried
to find work as a miner. The only possessions he had on him at the
time of his death was a “two gold rings, cigarettes, a mouth organ, a silk
handkerchief, and ten cents.”
Mamie Evans wrote him a letter early in April from Park
City and he wrote her back on April 12th. The letter indicated that Jack was
worried about their relationship and that she might have been staying in Park
City to get away from him.
In this letter he wrote seven times “come back soon”
and he called her “darling” eighteen times in the correspondence. Typical in
his communication was his imploring her to come to Salt Lake City. At one point
he wrote: “My dear darling Mamie, I received your letter this morning and was
very glad to hear from you. I know that it was very lonesome up there for you
and how do you think I must feel about you. My god darling, don’t stay up there
any longer than you can help for darling it was awful lonesome without you, so
darling come back soon as you can.”
Jack Ross’ mental state was deteriorating at this stage,
consumed by his jealousy. His obsession with Lena Carter was driving him to
madness. He even sent a photograph of her to his aunt, Mrs. Minnie Taggart, in
Ohio saying that he had married her. Found on his person was a letter from his
aunt which was addressed to Ross “and wife.” There was no evidence that
they were ever married, and Mamie Evans denied it to her friends.
John D Williams
Richard “Dick” T. Morgan, alias John D Williams, Williams
was a 23-year-old man in 1897. He claimed to be from Virginia. Yet, from a book
in his possession, his real name was most likely Richard T. Morgan and perhaps
from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania not Virginia. Lena Carter often was said
to have referred to him by the name of “Dick”.
John D Williams as he called himself was described in
newspapers as being “about 5 feet and 5 inches, very light complexioned, blue
eyes and smooth face.” His blond hair was a feature which was mentioned several
times when he was described by reporters.
One newspaper man even remarked that Williams was “comely
and it was his comeliness, which enamored Mamie,” and “that enrage Ross and led
to the killing.” However, this description was in complete contrast to another
reporter who after the death of Lena Carter, called Williams “homely.”
John D. Williams said that he met Mamie Evans in early
April 1897 in Salt Lake City after she left Park City about a week prior to her
death. Their meeting was described as, “One night a well-dressed blond man” met
Mamie Evans and “took a fancy to her and the liking was
reciprocated.” The implication is that they met while she was
working as a street walker. Williams claimed that “they associated for some
time and then a mutual affection sprung up.” The implication is also that
after their sexual encounters Williams fell in love with Mamie and believed the
feeling was “mutual.” Mamie Evans boasted to her friends that “Dick” had plenty
of money which may have been the real attraction.
Williams also said
Lena Carter told him about her jealous lover, Jack Ross, but Williams said he
never saw him until April 20. Ross upon hearing that John D. Williams had
money, said he “had to get the dough” in order to compete for Lena’s affection.
About week before the tragedy at the Ogden train station, John
D. Williams was standing on Salt Lake City’s Main Street and Third South with Mamie
Evans and Lou Binkley another “fallen woman” , “when the demimondes spied Jack
Ross.” Carter alarmed said to Williams, “Here come Jack. You had better go. We
will meet you at Walkers bank.” Evidently, they needed money for train fare to
Ogden.
Jack Ross saw John D. Williams standing with the women and
in a jealous rage followed Williams with a knife. Williams stated he felt that
his life was threatened so “he entered a tailor shop” on Third South and “passed
through the rear entrance and out into another street thus escaping him.”
When Mamie Evans and John D. Williams reconnected, they
made plans to leave Salt Lake City for Ogden where she could hide from Ross in
one of the city’s brothels. Williams went then to the Rio Grande Depot on Fifth
[Sixth] West and took the afternoon train to Ogden. Lena Carter and Lou Binkley
followed later that night and upon reaching Ogden “took quarters in the Tanner Block” near 24th
Street and Lincoln Street.
Events in Ogden
Mamie Evans had been in Ogden for several days, hiding out
as “an inmate of a house of ill repute.” Jack Ross went looking for John D.
Williams and Mamie Evans but after failing to locate them in Salt Lake City, on
April 22 he left for Ogden.
Early on Friday April 23, at 2 in the morning, Ogden Police
Captain William “Bill” D. Silvey and a Police Officer named William A. Brown
were patrolling near the Ogden train depot with when they heard a commotion in
one of the rooms on the Allen Block. Going to investigate, Captain Silvey
“ascended the stairs, leaving Brown below, to investigate the cause of the
ruckus.”
Captain Silvey met Mamie Evans running down the stairs,
“attired only in her night dress”. Jack Ross was seen standing at the top of
the stairs but did not speak to Captain Silvey as the officer entered Room 15
from where Carter had fled. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he returned to
the foot of the stairs and heard Mamie Evans talking to Officer Brown.
Silvey who would have known Mamie Evans told her she must stay in her room or be locked up
for “street walking”.
Not wishing to be arrested, Mamie Evans told the police
officers that everything was all right and “with this assurance she was
permitted to return to her room.” Captain Silvey left, unaware that Jack Ross
had murderous intentions.
Jack Ross had taken a room in the same building where Mamie
Evans and Lou Binkley were lodging and after he had gone to bed, the two women
left and “went up the street to the Ogden House where they secured lodging.”
For the rest of Friday, Mamie Evans, and Lou Binkley,
probably along with John D. Williams, “remained in doors all day and Ross was
thrown off the scent.” They agreed that it was best that Carter get as far away
from Jack Ross as she could. It was decided that Butte, Montana, “a wide-open
town,” was a place where Mamie Evans could make a living in one of the many
brothels there.
Early on Saturday April 24, at 1 in the morning,
information reached Captain Silvey that there was more trouble in the Allen
Block regarding Mamie Evans and Lou Binkley. The informant was most likely
Belle London, who knew “there was trouble between the parties.” he
informant stated to the police that “Mamie Evans and Lou Binkley should be
arrested or there would be a killing.”
Captain Silvey and Officer Joseph McManus went to Mamie
Evan’s “living quarters” at the Ogden House and when the officers arrived, Jack
Ross was also in the room,” as he had “ferreted out” the women’s hiding place.
At 2:30 in the morning, the police arrested the two women who were taken to
jail for disturbing the peace.
At the Ogden city jail, Captain Silvey questioned Mamie
Evans regarding the preceding morning when she had run down the stairs in her
night dress. She said she fled because Ross had threatened to kill her.
Mamie Evans told the captain how “Ross was making her life miserable” and that
he would not rest until he had killed both Williams and her.
The Captain Silvey reprimanded her for not informing him
about Ross, saying that she “had ought to have informed him that night as Ross
might have taken a shot at him.” Mamie Evans assured him, saying, “No, I am the
one he wants to kill.”
Lou Binkley who had also been arrested however told the
officer that she had heard Jack Ross say
in her presence, “I will kill [expletive] Dick, but I will not harm a hair on
your head, Mamie.”
Mamie Evans then told the captain of her plans to leave
Ogden for Butte, Montana to escape from Ross. She then complained saying
she had only $2 on her and therefore could not pay the fine to be released.
John D. Williams however managed to scrape up some money, went
to the jail and paid her fine but did not have enough for Lou Brinkley. Mamie Evans
was released “upon a promise to leave town.”
That Saturday afternoon, Jack Ross went to the Red-Light
Bordello and asked to see “one of the girls.” He asked to borrow fifty cents as
he “not had anything to eat all day.” She gave him the money and she
listened to him “discourse on the trouble and quarrel” he had with Mamie Evans.
He assured her that he had planned to reconcile with her that evening. Inexplicably,
he then took a letter from his pocket and said to the girl, “this is to my
mother. I must post it tonight.” Then he burst into tears.
At about 7:30 that Saturday evening, Mamie Evans and John D
Williams were “taking supper at the Bon Ton,” a Chinese Restaurant, at 252
Twenty-Fifth Street, when Ross passed by and saw them through the window pane. The jealous lover then overheard the proposed
trip to Butte, Montana and “considered it a ruse to get rid of him.”
After eating, Mamie Evans and John D. Williams separated,
and Evans went to the Union Pacific depot accompanied by her friend Belle
London. Williams reached the depot platform at the same time as the ladies of
the evening arrived, but by another route as not to be seen by Ross. Ross was
waiting at the train depot.
Mamie Evans had just purchased her train ticket when she
spied Ross and said to her companions, “There’s Jack.” John D Williams
said to her, “You had better go with him, Mamie, and leave me. I don’t want to
be the cause of trouble.”
Belle London also Mamie Evans go over to meet with Ross but
stayed back so she did not hear any of the conversation between the former
lovers who were talking in the waiting room. However, Williams stayed near Evans and was the one who reported their
conversations.
Jack Ross, who according to Williams, “appeared excited and
had a wild look in his eyes” approached Mamie Evans and she “took a few steps to
meet him.” Others in the Union Pacific Depot waiting room stated they did
not noticed Ross and Evans “as there was nothing in their actions that
attracted attention. There was no loud conversation.”
Jack Ross asked Mamie Evans, “Was it all off with me?” and
she replied, “Yes, I don’t love you anymore. It’s him I love,” indicating
Williams. He then asked if she had made up her mind to go to Butte, and Mamie
Evans said she had. Ross demanded if Williams was going with her, and she
answered no. She repeated to Ross that Williams was not going but that she
was.
Mamie Evans then turned to Williams and said for him to
wait, as that she was going to look after her baggage. Jack Ross went with her,
and he and Mamie Evans were seen walking upon the station platform going south
to the baggage area.
Special depot policeman, Mathias Hinchcliff, had just
announced the Union Pacific train departure at 8:20. He said he had seen the
couple in the waiting room talking and supposing they were going east. He
remarked to them “as they walked south on the platform, that they were going
the wrong way to take the train.”
Mamie Evans told Hinchcliff that she was going to Butte,
Montana and “Hinchcliff then went on his way”. In the next instant he
heard a shot that startled him, and he turned to see Mamie Evans scream,
running from Ross.
Jack Ross had shot Mamie Evans in her chest with an
American double action 38-Calliber pistol. The bullet went “through the body,
the ball having entered an inch above the heart.” The shot however was not
immediately fatal as Carter was able to run before “two more shots rang out and
the girl fell.” Ross then ran a few steps behind a train car and “putting the
pistol to his head blew his brains out.”
When Belle London heard the shots, she took off running out
of the depot frightened. “The female companion, who was with Mamie, fled
at the first shot and was not seen again.”
John D. Williams had watched the couple walk down the
platform but had been “discreetly keeping out of sight as Mamie had told him
that Ross had intended to kill him.” When he heard the first shot, he ran
towards the wounded girl. “It was his arm that raised her from the platform.”
Immediately others in the depot also “rushed to the site of
the carnage.” Ross’ dead body and the wounded Mamie Evans were removed from the
platform to the baggage room where cots were provided. Evans was still conscious “but, with that
peculiar constancy that prevails among the demimonde she would not tell who her
assailant was.” A score of men peered into the dead man’s Ross’ face but “no
one in the crowd seemed to know him.”
As news of the killing spread, the presumption was that
Ross was angry with her “for casting him off; for rejecting his love.”
“Doubtless he tried to persuade Lena to give up Williams and reinstate him as
the idol of her heart and upon her refusing he made with jealous passion and
determined, if he could not have her as his own no one else would.”
Physicians were summoned to the Union Pacific Depot and
“did what they could for her until an ambulance arrived.” Mamie Evans was said
to have been in great pain and “continually asked that the clothing from her
breast be removed. After a few minutes she became delirious and talked
incoherently.” Williams stayed close by her side and “whispered words of hope
into her ear.”
Finally, at 9:20 at night, the “hospital wagon
arrived” and “the wounded girl was tenderly carried to it.” A reporter
from the Ogden Standard Examiner and Captain Spivey who arrived on the scene,
“steadied the cot in the wagon while W.J. Graham started his horses up the
street.”
When the ambulance reached the corner of the Reed Hotel at
Washington and Twenty-Fifth Street, Mamie Evans was “gasping at interval and
groaning continuously.” When the ambulance reached the corner of Adams Street
it was apparent that Mamie Evans was
dying.
The ambulance then was slowly driven another block as not
to jolt her and when the driver stopped “under the electric light at the corner
of Jefferson, Capt. Silvey and the reporter raised her head that was slipping
from the pillow. The face was turning towards the light and the pallid lips
parted in the last gasp. All was over.” Lena Carter lived for an hour and a
half after she had been shot.
Mamie Evans body was taken to the hospital where the
doctors “pronounced life extinct.” The ambulance then turned around and “the
living body that was started to the hospital, was taken to the morgue, a
corpse.” Mamie Evan’s body was taken to “Richey’s Undertaking Parlor.”
News of the Murder/ Suicide at the Union Pacific
Lena Carter known now only as Mamie Evans was shot to death
in the Ogden Union Pacific Depot by Jack Ross who was her jilted lover. After
shooting her, he turned his pistol on himself and committed suicide. As that
the double murder suicide took place in a very public location in front of many
witnesses, it was sensational news.
The newspapers of the period, in typical fashion, blamed
Mamie Evans for being responsible for her own death. When trying to explain her
killer’s motives for shooting Carter, one reporter wrote, “What was the cause
for the terrible tragedy can only be conjectured, but it was believed that her
actions drove him to it.”
The news of the murder suicide “created a profound
sensation” and “crowds of morbidly curious persons visited the morgue to view
the remains.” Side by side in the morgue the bodies of Mamie Evans and John
Ross were laid out. “On the cooling boards they lay covered only with sheets,
their pinched and haggard faces looking upward to the low ceiling of the
room.”
No one knew the man, as he was “a stranger in a strange
land” but he had died “all because he was consumed with intense and jealous
passion” for Mamie Evans.
“The visitors looked at the face of the dead man, whose
features even in death showed terrible grim resolve and the lines of awful
determination. The face was set and hard, the mouth firmly closed, the jaws set
hard, and every feature showed that when death came, the soul of the man with
its bitterness and murder had left its impression on the face.”
“Many of the women who had associated with the
unfortunate Mamie in her hours of life, called and many were tears quietly shed
by them as they gazed into the face of the one whom a few hours before they had
seen so full of life.”
The Funeral
When the news of the death of their daughter reached them,
Henry E. Carter, and his wife “arrived in Ogden on the 1:23 p.m. Rio Grande
Western train from Salt Lake.” On Sunday, April 25, they first went to the
Ogden City jail where officers directed them to the Richey’s Undertaking
Parlor. “They were grief stricken over the death of their wayward
daughter’s untimely death.”
“The parents of the dead girl were up from Salt Lake
City and their grief was indeed pitiful.” “Both were deeply grieved at
the tragic death of their daughter; the mother weeping bitterly.”
Lena Carter’s funeral was held at Richey’s Undertaking
Parlors. “The great crowds, which been characteristic of the tragedy, were
present at the closing scene; even blocking the street in front of the place.”
A Methodist Episcopalian pastor “delivered the prayer and spoke a few feeling
words of mercy for the dead and comfort for the living.”
Lena Carter was buried in Ogden’s city cemetery with only a
few attending the internment. “The girl’s recent companion known as Lou G.
Binkley and the man John D Williams who had supplanted Ross in the girl’s
affection were present.” Williams spent “some time in conversation with the
dead girl’s parents after the funeral.”
John D. Williams told reporters that he “loved Mamie and if
she reformed, he was to marry her.” He felt now that life was not worth living
without her and wished that Ross had shot him instead of her. “He talks about
destroying himself, but it was not believed that he seriously means it.”
After the news of the killing of “Mamie Evans” was carried
to her “girlfriends” who were also inmates of Ogden’s brothels, “a mantle of
sadness spread over the entire place, and many were the tears shed over the
fate of their sister in sin.”
As for love crazed Jack Ross, he was buried at the county’s
expense in the pauper section of the city cemetery in an unmarked grave.
Suicide Letter
Among Jack Ross effects was found a letter which stated the
motive for the murder. “Salt Lake City-To the public I wish to ask the public
to pardon me for the act I am about to commit. I tried to drive it off, but I
cannot. It must be done sooner or later. I love the girl with all my heart, and
I cannot live without her. I wish that all officers would notify my folks.” The
address given was for “Mrs. Minnie Taggart 842 North Second Street, Hamilton
O.”
The Inquest
John D. Williams was taken into custody by Captain Silvey as
a material witness for the inquest into the murder of Lena Carter. He was
lodged in the city jail, much to his agitation. When questioned by the police,
he said his name was John D. Williams and “intimated that his people were ‘way
up’”, meaning well connected.
Williams insisted that his name was John D Williams and he
had “positively refused at first to give any name to Captain Silvey.” In a
notebook, which belonged to him, however, was written “This book belongs to
Richard T Morgan No. 2408 E Huntington Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United
States.” He was also referred to by the nickname “Dick” by Lena Carter
and her associates.
Newspaper accounts gave John D. Williams age as 23 [1874]
years old in 1897 and a native of Virginia. The Salt Lake Tribune described
Williams “a mere youth in appearance, evidently only 19 or 20 years of age,
although he gives his age as 23”.
The 1880 federal census of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
listed a 4-year-old orphan [1876] named Richard Morgan living in the Methodist
Episcopalian Home for Children at 2401 Park Avenue. The home was two and a half
miles from the East Huntingdon address. It is not positive that the two
individuals are the same person however there doesn’t appear to be another
child in the city of the same name and age range.
An article from 1895 reported that a “Dick Morgan” was
tried in Beaver, Utah who was found guilty of “burglary”. The 1896 City
Directory for Salt Lake City showed that a Richard T Morgan was living on 10th
West giving his occupation as a “machinist”.
When searched by the police, Williams had on his person a
“pawn ticket for a silver watch pledged for $3 in the name of John Ross at
Petrovetsky’s pawn office on East Second South Street” in Salt Lake. It was
surmised at first by the police, that the pawn ticket may have been what
provoked the quarrel between the two men until learning of Ross’ insane
jealousy. However, it was later learned that it had been Lena Carter who had
pawned Ross’ watch.”
Williams
told investigators that when Lena Carter had informed him that Jack Ross
had threatened to kill him, Williams claimed he “had not paid much attention to
the threats as he believed Ross was nutty.”
Of his relationship with Mamie Evans he stated,
“Mamie was a good girl, and I was trying to get her to lead a better life. I
did not love her as Ross did, but I was interested in her. She promised me to
go home to her folks.”
John Williams protested his being locked up in the city
jail and penned a note that he gave to the jailer to give to Captain Spivey. “Captain Silvey: Dear Sir When I gave myself
up to you, I thought that you would not throw me in a cell in among a lot of
common prisoners as I am only a witness and not a prisoner. I think that it was
an outrage as you cannot detain me, only at the detention hospital, as a
witness and I herein demand my release otherwise I shall sue the county for
damages. I remain yours truly John D Williams.”
Captain Silvey later released Williams after county
authorities decided that an inquest was not necessary and “consequently this
expense will not be incurred.”
Infatuation with Belle London
A few weeks after the funeral of Lena Carter, John D
Williams started frequenting the “Red Light” brothel and soon became obsessed
with Belle London. “He suddenly came upon the Red-Light scene and began to wage
a fierce play for the heart of Belle who was now the reigning deity of the
place”.
When Belle London spurned his entreaties, Williams
threatened to shoot her unless “she consented to take the place in his
affections made vacant by Mamie’s death.” “He told Belle that she must come
with him because he loved her as well as he had Mamie and unless she agreed to
leave the place and become his own, he would do what Ross did.”
Belle London was “rattled” by Williams’ threats, and she
went to the police who arrested Williams for “carrying concealed weapons”
presumably to harm the woman. In a reporter’s account of this strange
incident, he wrote “Williams was 23 years of age rather homely, and it was said
that his real name was Richard T. Morgan, an accusation which he emphatically
denies.”
During Williams police court hearing, Belle London, “in
dread of her life”, did not appear to give testimony against Williams.
The arresting officer “convinced the court that the young rattlebrain was once
more seeking notoriety” and not a real danger.
John D. Williams had told the court that he lived in the
mining town of Frisco, in Beaver County, Utah where he was a painter.
Williams admitted that he had been target practicing but “not with the object
of using Belle London for a mark.”
The police court judge fined Williams $30 and advised him
to go back to Frisco and take up painting again rather than “thrusting his
uninviting record upon this city”.
As that John D Williams didn’t have money to pay the fine,
he was sent to jail for thirty days after which he was invited to leave the
city and “let Belle London and the Red Light alone”.
Nothing further was known of the enigmatic man who many
blamed for the death of Lena Carter for enflaming Jack Ross’ jealousy.
Andrew F. Dickson- An Innocent In Zion
Several instances
of young men being robbed by strangers whom they met on Second South are
recorded in newspaper accounts over the years. These accounts are suspicious
however as that there were probably more
to these encounters than were published in the papers.
One such account
was of a young man, named Andrew F. Dickson, who recently arrived in Salt Lake
City, on his way to California. Dickson took up with some other men while in
the city who plied him with alcohol and then robbed him while he was passed
out and “slept off his stupor in a
vacant lot near the Albany Hotel.”
In June 1899, 21-year-old
“A.F. Dickson” arrived in Salt Lake City from Tennessee. The incident of his
misfortune, as reported in the Herald
Republican paper, mistakenly stated that the youth was from Cedar City when
actually he was probably from Banner Springs, Fentress County, Tennessee. The
Herald also described Dickson as being “older in years than experience,” which
was a polite way of saying he was extremely naïve.
Dickson stated in
his account of the incident that his “folks at home” advised him “to take a
little trip west”. So he started out for California with train fare only enough
to Salt Lake with “the assurance of a letter from home” that would contain a
check for $15 so he could continue his journey.
Upon his arrival
on June 19 , Dickson would have gotten off the west bound train at the Rio
Grande Western Depot located on then, Fifth West but now Sixth West. The
passenger depot was just across from the Albany Hotel.
The letter with a
check from his folks was to come general delivery, which Dickson would have picked
up downtown at the Post Office which was located in the Dooley Building on West
Temple Street on Second South.
Where he spent the
nights of June 19 and 20 is unknown but mostly likely at the Albany Hotel as
that it was near there, in a vacant lot, where he spent the night after he met
the two men who had invited him out for drinks.
A Drinking Spree
In the afternoon
of June 21st, Dickson met a “gentleman”, who with a friend, proposed “just a
little something” to entertain the young man.
The three men went to a saloon and a reporter mused, “great was the joy
of all”.
The “gentleman”
and his friend were actually indigents who were plying Dickson with alcohol.
The two men bought drinks all around for them insisting that “they were doing
the honors when Dickson wanted to reciprocate.”
As the night of
drinking progressed, and “tired of the mirror glitter” of the saloon, the
trio procured a pint of whiskey and
started staggering down Second South towards the Albany Hotel.
Along the way
“everybody took a pull at the bottle” but the new found friends gave the rest
of the half bottle of Whiskey to Dickson.
“Dickson promptly proceeded to get decidedly ‘mellow’.”
“Near the Albany
Hotel, the boy became drowsy, and his guardians proffered to watch over him
while he slept. All fell into a vacant yard and Dickson into a peaceful
sleep.” Dickson recalled “Then life became a blank for a short time.”
When Dickson awoke
in the morning, his companions were gone and so was most of his money. His
pockets had been rifled “but his new made acquaintances were “kind enough” to
leave two or three dollars in silver in his clothes untouched. “All else was
gone.” “ He had been robbed of $15 by a couple of tramps near the Albany
Hotel.”
Dickson
immediately reported the theft, describing “one of the parties as being light
complexioned and heavy set, the other dark, and light set. One had a moustache
just growing out, one wore light clothes the other dark.”
The newspaper
reporting the young man’s misfortune in Salt Lake City on Second South wrote,
“The victim will postpone his trip to the coast until more money arrives from
down ‘hum’,” imitating the boys accent for home.
Chapter Nine
The Notorious Women of the Rio Grande District
While the majority of prostitution in Salt Lake City in the
1880s and 1890s occurred in the brothels of Commercial Street, Franklin Avenue,
and Victoria Alley, many women were simply street walkers playing their trade
downtown. As the Rio Grande District became a magnate for young
unattached laborers, prostitution was drawn to West Second South. Only
one “house of ill fame” was recorded as being located on Second South in the
1890’s, but certainly the transient nature of the area was conducive illicit
sexual conduct by “sex workers.”
Elizabeth Metz, “Procuress” of 574 West Second South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed only one
dwelling on the corner parcel of Lot Four in Block 64 at Second South and Fifth
[Sixth] West. The address of 574 West contained a home with a mix of adobe
brick towards the front and a longer wooden attached room behind. It was
45 feet from its nearest neighbor at 568 West. Except for an outhouse nothing
else was located on the corner property. On this property existed a house of prostitution
operated by Elizabeth Metz, sometimes spelled Metz.
Elizabeth Metz is first mentioned in newspaper accounts in
January 1894 when a man named Charles Hines was “charged with using
abusive language” towards her and the charges were dismissed.”
Later in
July, Elizabeth Metz was in court again charged with stealing a shirt from an
African American man. “Yesterday [July 20] was darkey’s day in United States
Commissioner Greenman’s court. Hearing was had in the case of Lauris Bishop, a
colored man vs. Elizabeth Metz, a white woman. The parties are roomers in a
cottage in the rear of the old Colorado House on State Street.
“Bishop alleged that Mrs. Metz , who washes for a living,
entered his room during his absence and stole a shirt. Attorney J.A. Williams
appeared for the accused and several witnesses for the prosecution were
examined but none of them knew much about the matter.”
“One colored lady, who was a witness for the prosecution,
got very hot. When under cross-examination Mr. Williams asked some questions
which tended to reflect on the moral character of the witness. She repelled the
insinuations with great vigor and stated she had never been arrested for any
offense worse than fighting.”
“Mr. Williams -You are a fighter then?”
“Witness- I can take my own part even against you if
necessary (threateningly). You had better be careful of what you say about me.
I am a decent woman and a perfect lady and was never arrested except for fighting.”
“Mr. Williams was over awed and subsided.”
“The evidence not being sufficient to convict, his honor
dismissed the case.”
Metz’s House of Ill Fame
In August 1894 Elizabeth Metz, “a Franklin Avenue belle”
and Brock Lightfoot, were arrested last night [8 August] for fighting.” They
went to court on 10 August 1893. “Brocky Lightfoot, the darkey, and Elizabeth Metz,
his adversary will be tried today. Both have double charges against them, the
former for fighting and frequenting a house of prostitution, the latter for
fighting and keeping a house of prostitution.”
Mrs. M Elizabeth Metz was listed in the 1894 city directory
as residing at 574 West Second South as was a man named William S Messer,
laborer. By February 1895 two women, Elizabeth Metz and Annie Baumgarten,
living at this address, were arrested and appeared at a preliminary hearing
before Judge George W Bartch. The women were charged that procuring young girls
“for the purpose of prostitution” and that they “did inveigle and entice Ada M
Lefler, a female of previous chaste character, into a certain house of ill-fame
and assignation, situated near the corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth]
West streets.”
An account of the proceedings was mentioned in
newspapers. “The Procuress In Court. The examination of Elizabeth Metz
and Annie Baumgarten; charged with procuring girls for the purpose of
sacrificing them to the brutal lust of their clients, was not reached yesterday
[February 28] in the rush of other business, and the accused were ordered to
appear for trial at 2 o’clock this afternoon. The case against Cladie, daughter
of Mrs. Metz, who is charged with prostitution was continued until the same
hour, and back to jail to study the motionless hand of the dirty face of the
old hall clock and wonder what crime had stopped them.”
“Elizabeth Metz and Annie Baumgarten, the abandoned females
who were arrested on the charges of procuring, were arraigned, pleaded not
guilty. Bail was fixed at the sum of $400 each which they were unable to give
and went to jail until 2 p.m. today [March 1] when they will be examined.”
“Both women, together with Cladie Metz, a daughter, and S.
Leeman were charged with being inmates and will be heard today. For the benefit
of a mawkish public the statement is made that the examination will be
private.”
“Mrs. Metz, A Tartar. Would Barter Her Daughter’s Virtue
for Coin, Testimony of Victims, Innocent School Girls- The Prey of a Human
Vulture. Shocking Testimony in Police Court- How an Abandoned Female Sought to
enrich Herself at the Expense of Purity-Annie Baumgarten a “Booster”-
“That a woman so utterly devoid of the instincts of
humanity that she would barter her daughter’s virtue for a few paltry dollars
seems improbable but a mass of testimony in the police court yesterday [March
1] tended to establish that Elizabeth Metz, on trial for procuring, is just
that kind of female.”
“That a girl lives who, after falling herself, would stoop
too still lower depths and try to drag down with her innocent companions is
hard to believe, yet all the evidence adduced shows that Annie Baumgarten is
that kind of creature.”
“This precious pair was on trial yesterday. For the sake of
the young girls, who they tried to inveigle, the examination was a private one,
and the names of the innocent girls will not be divulges.”
“The women were defended by Attorney Corey, who made a
gallant effort to break the testimony of the prosecution, all to no purpose.
Mrs. Metz regarded the affair evidently as a sort of joke; smiling upon
everyone in general, and no one in particular; ever and anon asserting that the
witnesses were only telling falsehoods, something Mr. Corey only checked by
informing her that if she wasn’t quiet, he would withdraw from the case.”
“There is something in Mrs. Mettz’s face which is the exact
opposite of the indication of kindly nature. The lines are hard and well
defined, the eyes are steely and cold and the mouth cruel. She isn’t sensual
herself; that can be perceived easily.”
“Annie Baumgarten, on the contrary, is decidedly so.
Wantonness shows itself in every movement of her body; in every flash of her
eye; in every quiver of her lip. While at times the latter broke down and wept,
the former never displayed even a remote symptom of regret.”
Four girls were examined. Two of them sure to having been
ruined in the Metz household. None of the quartette were over 16 years. In both
instances where crime was committed the girls testified that Mrs. Metz was a
pecuniary gainer, having appropriated all in one case, and half in another, of
the price paid for the girl’s ruin. They also told about Mrs. Metz wanting her
daughter to retire with men.
Mr. Corey tried hard to break the testimony of these two
girls by extracting confessions of previous criminal acts but failed although
he succeeded in establishing that one had been criminally intimate with her
cousin before going there. But the last two were posers for the astute
attorney.”
“Hold up your right hand, “said Justice [Grant H.] Smith to
the first one a sweet little girl of 16, after which he administered the oath.”
Then to the surprise of all those present, the girl in a
clear voice, repeated: “I solemnly swear that I will tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth. So, help me God.”
Corey’s rigid cross examination made no impression
whatever. The girl told how Annie Baumgarten had induced her to go to Mettz’s;
how Mrs. Metz had talked to her about having a room of her own and making money
in a manner of the harlot- in fact, everything. Her evidence caused the
Baumgarten girl to weep. Mrs. Metz, however, didn’t have a tear in her
lachrymal distillery.
The last witness corroborated the proceeding one and then
the testimony damaging to the character of the house was introduced after which
an adjournment was had until this morning when the defense will attempt a
showing.
“Convicted in police court yesterday [3 March 1895], of
luring unwary schoolgirls to her wretched brothel and the accomplishing their
ruin, Mrs. Elizabeth Metz was held to the action of the grand jury in the sun
of $1000, while Annie Baumgarten, her artful decoy, was held in the sum of
$250. Neither was able to furnish these amounts and they were remanded to the
custody of the turnkey and remained in jail through the night.”
“The defense opened evidence yesterday that Samuel Loman, a
jack of all trades, according to admissions that he had been a horse shoer, a
barber, and a bartender on the stand. He testified that he was a boarder at the
house of Metz when the raid was made upon it and had since been detained upon a
charge of resorting to a house of prostitution.”
Annie Baumgarten, one of the defendants, followed him. She
is a diminutive thing, full of defiance and deviltry, and testified that until
her uncle remonstrated against the hours she had been keeping at nights, she
had lived with her grandmother. Her mother, she said died some three or four
years ago, leaving her an orphan, as she knew nothing whatever of her father.
Then she drifted into evil associations. She denied however, that she had
sought to ruin others, or that she had induced young girls to go to Mrs.
Mettz’s house.”
“Cladie Metz, a powerfully constructed girl of 16, daughter
of the accused, admitted having sinned, and that her hoe had been the resort of
men and youths and soldiers.”
After the defense rested, and the case after augment by
counsel for the accused was submitted, the court indicating to County Attorney
Whittemore that remarks from his side of the case were unnecessary.”
In pronouncing judgment, Judge [Grant H.] Smith admitted
that he was in doubt as to the best course to pursue in Annie Baumgarten’s
case and suggested to counsel that step be taken to procure her
commitment to the reform school. The girl could no longer stand up under the
strain with which for two days she had taxed herself and shook and cried as if
her frail body would go to pieces.”
Mrs. Metz took her own fate resignedly, and as if all hope
had fled with the judgment of the court, requested County Attorney Whittmore to
send one of her daughters to a sister in Nebraska, and the other to the father
in Oregon. Samuel Loman arrested in connection with the defendants was
released.”
“To rescue them from the disgrace into which a mother’s
avarice has dragged them, Cladie and Mamie, the daughters of Mrs. Elizabeth
Metz, aged 16 and 8, respectively , will today [8 March 1895] be provided with
transportation to a point in the East, where an aunt has volunteered to give
them refuge.”
“This was the decision reached by the Selectmen and County
Attorney Whittemore yesterday afternoon after the latter had spread the
contents of a letter before them. The mother, who Cladie says is responsible
for her downfall, is now confined in the county jail, where the daughters are
being fed, and if there were no other consideration, the Selectmen and their attorney
contend that the cost of the transportation will be less than the cost of food
for which the county must pay.”
In April, Elizabeth Metz and Annie Baumgarten were indicted
by a Grand Jury. “The grand jury came into court and reported two indictments
under the laws of the territory, which turned to be against Elizabeth Metz and
Annie Baumgarten, the two notorious women who were held in the grand jury form
Police Justice [Grant H.] Smith’s court for procuring and enticing schoolgirls
to their ruin and for keeping a house of ill-fame in the neighborhood of the
Rio Grande Western depot.”
Elizabeth Metz and Annie Baumgarten were arraigned in
before Judge George W. Bartch in May 1895 and pled not guilty to the charge of
enticing young girls to a house of prostitution . E. E. Winters acted as their
attorney.
“Elizabeth Metz and Annie Baumgarten were put on trial
yesterday [28 May 1895] afternoon before Judge Bartch and a jury, on an
indictment by the grand jury charging that on February 21 last, in this city,
the defendants, for the purpose of prostitution, did inveigle and entice Ada M
Lefler, a female of previous chaste character, into a certain house of ill-fame
and assignation, situated near the corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth]
West streets.”
Assistant District Attorney Richards prosecuted and
Attorney E.E. Winters and A.B. Edler defended the accused.
“It is claimed by the prosecution that Mrs. Metz, who is a
woman of probably 50 years, was the keeper of the house referred to: the other
defendant, Baumgarten who is quite a young girl, acted as a decoy
to entice young and unsuspecting girls to their ruin.”
“Ada Lefler, the girl who it is alleged was induced to
visit the Metz house, is a schoolgirl about 15 years of age, and it is
claimed that the defendants met her on several occasions and told her how by
going with them and meeting men at the house she could get fine clothes,
jewelry and money and have a good time.”
“Ada was induced to accompany them and was rescued and
taken from the place by the police. It is charged several other schoolgirls
were similarly induced to go to the Metz house.”
The defendants were given separate trials, “the first case
taken up being against the Metz woman. A number of young girls were examined
who testified to the conduct of Mrs. Metz in regard to inducing them to go to
too her house, and other witnesses gave evidence that house was a disorderly
one.”
“The case reached the jury late this afternoon and after a
short consultation a verdict of guilty was rendered and Friday set as a time
for passing sentence.”
On motion of the prosecution, the case against the
Baumgarten girl was continued for the term and the defendant released on her
own recognizance. She is a mere slip of a girl and probabilities are that if
she behaves herself in the future the charges against her will be
dismissed.
On 31 May 1895, Elizabeth Metz was sentenced to two years
and six months in the state penitentiary for operating a house of prostitution
and being a “procuress”.
“Elizabeth Metz the woman who was found guilty of enticing
young girls of previous chaste characters into a house of prostitution, next
stood up. Before sentence was passed her attorney E. E. Winters argues a motion
for a new trial, which was overturned, and his honor sentenced her to two years
and six months in the penitentiary. At the same sentencing hearing William
McAfee, alias Kelly, a colored man and Daisy Smith, a white woman, who both
previously pleaded guilty to the crime of fornication were each sentenced to
sixty days in the penitentiary.”
In February 1896 Elizabeth Metz petitioned the governor for
a pardon, “in order to nurse her daughter who is ill. “Her petition for pardon
was denied by the parole board” in April. She applied again in September
saying that she was a poor, honest woman and has a sick child.” A pardon was
denied again.
After being release from prison in 1899 she was listed as
living in Ogden. Her daughter Cladie Metz had returned to Salt Lake where she
married a 21-year-old man named William E Young in April 1896 after she had
given birth to her son, Howard Edward Young. in early March.
The 1900 federal census listed Elizabeth Metz as residing
back in Salt Lake living at 611 South Sixth East. In her household was her two
married daughters, Cladie Young and Mamie Steele. Elizabeth gave her age
as 42 years born, April 1848 in Pennsylvania and a Milliner as an occupation.
She said she was the mother of 7 children with only two surviving.
Her daughter Cladie said she was born Jan 1879 in Ohio as
was her daughter Mamie Steele in Jan 1874. Both Elizabeth and Cladie stated
they were widows. Mamie Steele stated she was married and was the mother of a
child who had died. A grandson Howard Edward Young born in March 1896 in
Utah was also in the household.
The 1901 city directory listed Mrs. Elizabeth Metz as the
widow of James Metz and resided 9 Morris Row. She moved frequently as that in
1902 she was at 632 St. Louis Avenue and the 1903 City directory shows that
“Mrs. Elizabeth Metz” had relocated to the rear of a home at 61 West Third
South. By 1904 she was living at 17 Franklin Avenue which was then the heart of
the African American section of Salt Lake City, now Edison Street. She
disappears from the city directory until 1908 when again she is listed as the
widow of James Metz and boarding at 238 East Fifth South Street.
She was not found in the 1910 Federal Census as living in
Utah. 1908 widow of James Metz boards 238 East Fifth South.
Daughters Cladia Metz and Mamie Metz
Her oldest daughter Cladia Amenda Young [1879-1950] was
still married when the 1900 census was taken and was not a widow. “Mrs. William
E. Young Brings Suit for Divorce. Cladia A Young yesterday [14 May 1901], filed
suit in the district court for divorce from William E. Young on the ground of
desertion and non-support. The parties were married in Salt Lake on April 24,
1895 [1896], and Mrs. Young alleges that because of his idleness and profligacy
the defendant failed to support her.”
In July 1898, the “defendant deserted and abandoned
plaintiff” and she “asks for a divorce, the custody of their child, that
her maiden name of Cladia Metz be restored.”
Cladia Metz obituary stated that she had been a resident of
Salt Lake for 31 years [1919] and that she had later married William L Nickens
in 1918 while in Kentucky. Her obituary said she was survived by a “stepson”
Howard Young who was her actual child. She was buried in the Salt Lake
City cemetery in an unmarked grave.
Mamie Metz Steele was mentioned in article in July 1900
where she saved the life of a prostitute with whom she was associated.
“Alta Colber, a youthful Inmate of a resort at 222 South
State Street made an unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide last evening [July
28]. The girl swallowed a large dose of morphine at 5 o’clock in the presence
of Mamie Steele another inmate of the place.”
“The Steele woman sent word to the police and Acting
Sergeant Peck and Officers Randolph and Smith hurried to the place to find the
girl lying unconscious on the floor. “
Dr W H Behle arrived at 7 o’clock, two hours after the drug
had been taken. He applied an emetic, and the girl was finally revived.
At a late hour last night, she was expected to live.”
“The wretched young woman begged piteously to be allowed to
die. She claims to be but 18 years old and says that she Is tired of the life
which she has been leading. The girl said that her only friend, the Steele
woman is going away, and she could not bear to be left behind friendless.”
“The Steele woman was present when the drug was swallowed,
and she says that the girl took the poison when informed that they must part.”
“ The girl who appears to be about the age she says she is,
says that she has a father and brothers living in Iowa. She came here from
Ogden she says. She stated that she has tried several times to reform but
that no one seemed willing to help her.”
The Salt Lake Herald reporting on the incident wrote,
“TRIED TO END HER LIFE-INMATE OF STATE STREET HOUSE TAKES MORPHINE. Friends
Interfered In Time to Save Her-Was Despondent and Friendless. Alta Colber, an
Inmate of Mabel Grayson’s resort at 222 South State Street made an unsuccessful
attempt to commit suicide late yesterday afternoon [28 July 1900] by taking
morphine. About 5 o’clock the girl who is but 18 years of age took a
sixty-grain bottle of the drug and in the presence of a companion Mamie Steele,
she swallowed a large dose of it before the latter could stop her.”
“I am told you are going away,” she said, Alta speaking to
Mamie, “and I will have no friend left In the world.” She also said she was
tired of her manner or of life, and she took the drug to end her existence.
Then she fell on the bed to go to sleep.”
“Mamie immediately secured assistance from some or of the
other inmates of the house, and they began to use every means they knew to keep
the girl from going to sleep.”
“Despite their efforts, however, the girl became drowsy and
after beating her and walking her around for some time they called Officers
Randolph and Smith in to assist them. The officers finding that no
physician had been called, immediately telephoned for the city physician, but
being unable to get him, Dr W H Behle was called in.”
“After working with the patient until she was able to walk
by herself, he pronounced the danger past and left her in the care of her
friends to be kept awake until the effects of the drug had entirely passed
away.”
“Dr Behle returned to see the patient later in the night
and pronounced her to be recovering all right.”
There’s no further information on this daughter of
Elizabeth Metz.
Democratic Meeting Hall
After the arrests at 574 West Second South the address was
no longer used as a house of “ill-fame.” In October 1896, a “Democratic meeting
held in the Second Municipal Ward for the benefit of the railroad men of the
Rio Grande Western” was at this location. The meeting “was strangle contrast
with the Republicans of the Third where it was attempted to convince Union
Pacific workers their jobs depended on the success of the local Republican
ticket. Republicans had less than 50 railroaders with votes to talk to
while the Democrats could not find seats for all who endeavored to gain
admittance to the hall where the meeting was held. Meeting held at the corner
of Second south and Fifth [Sixth] West, in a vacant building which was packed
to the door long before the speaking commenced.”
The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map listed this dwelling
set back from the street and only a few feet behind two stores at 596 and 598
West. There was an adobe front half of the building with a larger wooden one
story behind it.
AUNT FANNY PAYNE [1833-1892]
Fanny Payne was enumerated in the 1870 federal census of
Utah as a 37-year-old [1833] woman named “Fanny Paine”, living in Corrine, Utah
with 36-year-old William H Paine, presumably her common law husband. Their race
was listed as black and William H Paine’s occupation was given as “keeps a hotel.”
He gave his birthplace as New York, and she gave her birthplace as Ohio. If
this is accurate then neither of them had been enslaved as that both New York
and Ohio at the time of their births were free states. Living within
their household was a 22-year-old white store clerk named Charles Lewis from
Wisconsin.
The town of
Corrine was the unofficial "Gentile Capital of Utah" and was founded
just a year prior to when William and Fanny Payne was enumerated there. The
Trans Continental Railroad had just been completed in May 1869. A “group
of former Union Army officers and some determined non-Mormon merchants from
Salt Lake City decided to locate a Gentile town on the Union Pacific line,
believing that the town could compete economically and politically with the
Saints of Utah.”
It was said that “in its heyday, Corinne had some
1,000 permanent residents, not one of whom was a member of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to the boast of the local
newspaper.” The railroad town had “fifteen saloons and sixteen liquor
stores, with an elected town marshal to keep order in this "Dodge
City" of Utah.
No further information can be located about William H Payne
who either died or abandoned his wife, but in January 1875, 42-year-old Fanny
Payne was in the news as living in Ophir, a gold and silver mining town in
Tooele County.
The newspaper account mentioned “the negro woman, Fanny
Payne, was placed under bonds of $2,000 in Justice’s Brown’s court, Ophir,
Utah, for shooting Mrs. Bennett.”
“Mrs. Bennett was shot in the left shoulder, the ball
passing down the shoulder blade and lodging in the backbone. The ball has been
extricated and the patient is in a fair way to recover.”
No further information was given for why Payne shot Bennett,
but it may have been a dispute between prostitutes as Fanny Payne was known to
be a scrapper.
Living On Fifth Street in Ogden
Four years later Fanny Payne had moved to Ogden by November
1879, when she was assaulted by a man named George Bloom”. Justice Charles F.
Middleton heard the case of Bloom who was charged with “assaulting Fanny Payne,
a colored woman, on Fifth Street, dislocating her shoulder.”
“Considerable testimony was taken but the case was
adjourned in order more witnesses might be procured. Bloom swore he had not
seen the woman for at least three weeks previous to the time of the assault,
but Officer Keyes testified that Bloom came to him and acknowledged that he had
slapped the woman and asked if the officer thought anything could be done about
it, if the assaulted party went to the law about the matter.”
“Bloom also told the officer that if anything was said to
him in relation to the assault, he should say nothing about it. Middleton
considered the case had been fully established and fined “Georgie $25 and
costs, which were paid.”
In the 1880 federal census of Ogden, Utah, Fanny Payne was
listed as a 35-year-old widowed black woman and native of Wisconsin living in
the Second Ward of Ogden. Ten years earlier in the 1870 census, she had listed
her age as 37 years old. If the 1870 information is more accurate, Fanny Payne
was actually closer to 47 years old. The family of William Frank with
home she was enumerated probably provided information regarding Fanny Payne.
Payne was living on Fifth Street with the family of
28-year-old William Frank who were white. He gave his occupation as butcher.
She gave her occupation as “washing.”
The federal census was taken in June 1880, and during the
previous month of May, Fanny Payne appeared in an Ogden Court along with a
woman named Ida Abels, “for disturbing the peace.”
Fanny Payne “who resides on Fifth Street” and Ida Ables
were referred to in the article as belonging to the “demi monde” class
which was a term for “the class of women considered to be of doubtful morality
and social standing” and on the “fringes of respectable society.” The reporter
wrote “from what can be learned are to a certain extent rivals.”
The quarrel between the two women began when Fanny Payne
“made some libelous remarks in regard to Ida’s sanitary condition, which were
calculated to injure the latter’s business. Yesterday Ida repared to the
residence of the aforesaid Fanny and after a general war of words, pistols were
drawn by both. The evidence, which was very conflicting, though failing to
prove either of the women fired at each other, demonstrated the fact above
controversy that each female discharged her weapon and as a consequence they
were brought up and tried.” Judge C.F Middleton fined each defendant $50 and
court costs.
Although the federal census indicated that Fanny Payne
lived within the household of William Frank as a washer woman, newspapers
accounts suggest that she operated a boarding house.
In early June 1880, the death of a “colored man named R.V.
Bonner late of Evanston” was reported in Ogden newspapers. Bonner had just
recently applied at the “Saddle Rock restaurant on Fifth Street as a cook,” and
boarded on Fifth Street.
The 1880 federal census listed Robert Bonner as a 50-year-old
black man, born in Virginia where he may have been born into slavery. He was
working as a cook in Ogden and boarding at a rooming house on Fifth Street with
the family of Alonzo Stephens who was a carpenter. Within Stephen’s household
numbered 34 of Ogden’s Second Ward were eleven individuals including Rosa
Litchfield age 25 [1855] and her 2-year-old son Warren Litchfield who were
enumerated as “Indian” but may in fact been African American. Bonner and
Fanny Payne however were the only two black folks enumerated as living on Fifth
Street in Ogden’s Second Ward.
The newspaper article noted Bonner “did not enjoy good
health and was obliged to relinquish his employment” and he then went and
lodged with Fanny Payne.
The article reported, “He had come to Payne’s residence a
week before and asked her to wash him a shirt. He also hired one of her rooms
and lodge in her house up to the time of his death.” Bonner “was very
sickly when he came to her and she advised him to see Dr. John Driver, accompanying
the deceased to the doctor’s office on Fifth street.”
On June 18, at 4:30 in the morning, Fanny Payne was “awaken
by hearing agonizing screams” and she “hastily dressed herself went to his room
and a second later, heard him exclaim “God have mercy on me”.
She went searching from him outside and “hearing a noise”
she found Bonner dead and lying “partially outside of the outhouse” in the rear
of her residence”.
The County Coroner was “summoned and the deceased was
discovered where he had fallen. He had on his pants and undershirt and on his
feet were a pair of socks and carpet sippers.” Dr. John Driver was also
summoned who collaborated Payne’s testimony of Bonner being ill, and he stated
at the time the “deceased was liable to die any day and his demise was only a
question of a very short time.” The coroner determined the cause of death was
from heart disease.
Robert Bonner was said to have “bore a good character and
seems to have been possessed of some means and was not known as a drinking man.
It is not known whether or not he has a wife or family.”
Later in the year, another news account from August 1880
mentioned that “Fanny Paine” had been recently “assaulted by a male party, and
now carried a broken arm in a sling.”
Fanny Payne is not found in records again until 1882 when
in October it was reported that “four men went to ‘Aunt fanny’s’ on Fifth
Street for what purpose they visited that place our reporter did not learn. But
they had been there a short time they got into a quarrel which developed into a
fight. Two of the belligerents ‘pitched Into’ one and he was pounded about the
head and face in a terrible manner.”
“After they left the scene of the squabble several of them
went to the Globe Hotel and there stole a watch from a man named Brown who is
cook at the restaurant of the Palace saloon.”
“This morning they went Joseph Wright’s store and pawned
the watch. Subsequently they were arrested and lodged in jail to await an
interview with His Honor Justice Middleton, to who they doubtless will give a
detailed history of the melee and contribute something to defraying the expense
to the municipality.”
While still living on Fifth Street, Fanny Payne sent a
correction to the editor of the Salt Lake Herald about their reporting on the
fight of the four men. The paper printed her rebuttal with the byline, “Aunt
Fanny Denies It-“
“Editor Herald:- An article appeared in the Herald on
Saturday , Oct. 21st, in relation to a quarrel and fight that took place on
Friday night last, on Fifth Street. Now it was stated in the report that the
fight took place in “Aunt Fanny’s” house. This is a mistake. The fight did not
take place in my house, it was in the street on the sidewalk opposite my
house.”
“I keep a respectable boarding and lodging house. On the
night of the fight one of the men, an Irishman, came to my house, he had been
fighting and covered with blood. He wanted me to furnish him with supper and a
bed for the night- but I refused to do it; he then went to Collin’s place. When
the man was robbed at my house on Saturday night, I was not home, I was at the
theater. A set of silver teaspoons and a set of knives and forks were stolen
from me at the same time.”
“Mr. Editor if you publish this correction in the next
number of your paper you will do me an act of justice, as I have none but
respectable boarders at my house, and no brawlers or bad characters need apply
for lodging there. Yours & etc. Fanny Payne, Ogden City Oct. 23,
1882.” She must have had someone else draft the letter for her as she was
illiterate and signed the letter with an X as her mark.
The Ogden Standard
Examiner wrote an editorial in 1882 regarding the city becoming known as a
wide-open town it. “Ogden City is acquiring an unenviable reputation as the
scene of homicides and general rascality at a rate rather too rapid for the
well-earned reputation of the law abiding and moral bulk of her population, and
we might as well express our opinion right here that the moral sewage of the
town cried loudly for immediate attention, even if it requires radical
measures.”
Two years more would pass, until October 1884, until Fanny
Payne is in the news again. Frank Smith and Frank Wheeler were arrested
“for having a jamboree at Fanny Payne’s residence by throwing rocks in the
house, to the imminent danger and peril of the inmates.”
The pair were found guilty and “ were required to
contribute $175 to Ogden City. Not having any cash, they admitted they were
unable to meet their obligations, consequently they were consigned to the
watchful care of Marshal Fife.”
Fanny Payne was arrested in January 1885 and jailed for
selling liquor to a Native America named “Indian Jack” after he was found drunk
and was arrested. “Indian Jack” lodged a complaint against “negress Mollie”,
actually Fanny Payne, for giving him the whisky. Payne employed counsel and was
released. However, the paper reported that “Jack’s squaw and his daughter in
law sat patiently in the cold in front of the jail yesterday waiting for his
appearance. His son also waited but took it more easily by the stove in the
police office. Jack was finally fined $5 which he will slumber out in
jail.” In December 1885 it was reported that “Indian Jack “was killed in
Morgan, Utah “while in a drunken state”, he “was run over by a freight train.”
His remains were taken to Salt Lake City for burial.
Fanny Payne Moved to Salt Lake City
Fanny Payne may have been released from jail on the condition
that she leaves Ogden as by March 1885, when she was nearly 52 years old, she
is located in Salt Lake City.
“Fanny Payne, a lady of color, was arrested today for
hiring a hack and refusing to pay for it. She alleged that the hack driver
agreed to trust her, and the case went over until tomorrow.”
The police report also mention a prostitute named
Betty Wilson at the same time with whom Fanny Payne would have a brawl in
August 1885. “Mrs. Wilson was brought before Judge Adam Spiers at the
same time charged with drunkenness, profanity, and disorderly conduct.”
It may have been the first time the two met.
Betty Wilson and a woman named Emily Passey were mentioned
earlier in March 1885 as being drunk in a ‘notorious” saloon called Benites
near Second South and Commercial Street. The bar was mentioned several times as
being an “Infernal den.”
“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 can 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?”
Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, Fanny Payne found work as
a cook in an establishment in the “neighborhood of the Denver & Rio Grande
Western depot”. On 15 August 1885, a newspaper article mentioned that she was
in a brawl with Betty Wilson, Emily Passey, and Nellie Humphries”.
Nellie Humphries the wife of Frank Humphries, Mrs. Betty
Wilson, and Emily Passey wife of Fred Passey were frequently mentioned in
newspapers as being wonton women. No husband has been identified for
Betty Wilson however newspapers at the time often referred to mature women as “Mrs.”
whether they were married or not, especially women who were considered “lewd”
as the adjective Miss was reserved for unmarried respectable females. The three
women had just been released from the city jail when they made their way over
to the Rio Grande district.
“Within the past forty-eight hours, five women, chronic
inmates of the city jail, have been released, having served out their
sentences. This afternoon three of them, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Passey, and Nellie
Humphries went to the neighborhood of the D& RGW depot, got drunk, and
created general disturbance, for which they were again lodged in jail”
The news story mentioned only that a “woman of color”
operated a café near the Denver & Rio Grande depot. In the account of the
brawl in the “eating house”, Fanny Payne was not identified only the three
women “Nellie Humphries, Mrs. Wilson, and Mrs. Passey”, who were familiar to
the reporter who wrote, “while under the influence of liquor, created a
disturbance in an eating house kept by a colored woman.” The unidentified woman
of color was Mrs. Fanny Payne, described as “a colored individual of fighting
abilities”.
An account of the affray mentioned that in the “melee,
windows were broken, furniture smashed, and a perfect mayhem created.”
Emily Passey’s “body being black and blue from the blows she received” was “too
badly used up” to appear in police court with Nellie Humphries and Betty
Wilson.
“Two of the combatants” appeared in Police Court in front
of Judge Adam Speirs who “fined Nellie Humphries $10 and Mrs. Wilson $15 for
the part they took in the row”. The women, unable to pay their fines,
were lodged in jail for ten and fifteen days. Emily Passey’s “examination” was
delayed due to the battering Fanny Payne had given her.
The Salt Lake Herald reporter referred to Emily
Passey as “Mother Passey” due to her age, when she was sentenced. “Mother
Passey has retired to obscurity for the space of twenty-five days due to the
fact that she was proven guilty of drunkenness, disturbing the peace, and
destroying property, and had not the necessary funds to liquidate the amount
assessed against her.”
Fanny Payne was also arrested for having “engaged in a free
for all scraping match with three white women” of which she “unmercifully
battered one of her white sisters, for which she will be tried tomorrow.”
Fanny Payne appeared in Police Court on 18 August 1885, to
explain “how and why she let her angry passions rise to such an extent to abuse
and maltreat her particular friend.”
In October 1886, Fanny Payne was being referred to in news
account as “Aunt”, a dismissive term for older women of color as that she 53
years old. In that month. she appeared before Judge Adam Speirs again
where she charged that two women were harassing her, so much so that she
had to leave from the Rio Grande Depot district.
The newspaper correspondent, writing to amuse a white
readership, used a disparaging “negro dialect” reporting on Fanny Payne’s
appealed for help from the court in dealing with the abusive women who were
only identified as a “Dutch Hussy” and “Alice” who may have been an woman of
color named Alice Clark.
An account of her appearance in Judge Adam Spiers’s was
printed 31 October 1885 in an article called “Aunt Fanny’s Troubles- An
Eloquent Discourse in the Police Court Yesterday.”
“Aunt Fanny Paine, a colored lady who resided near
the Denver & Rio Grande depot, but who explained that she had recently
moved her residence owing to a pressure of circumstances, came into the Police
Court, yesterday clad in a tattered astrakhan cloak [an evening cape] and a
severe frown, and approached the judge in a very excited manner.”
“She was accompanied by another colored female named
Alice, and a white woman whom she referred to as a “___ d___ Dutch
hussy.”
“Her face was evidently a familiar one in the halls of
justice, and as Justice Speirs turned his fatherly gaze upon her, he asked
‘What is the matter? Have you folks been fighting again? I expect we shall have
to lock up the entire outfit.’”
Fanny Payne was reported as saying in the mimicry of a
black dialect, “Well, but Judge, you see, sah, what I want is jestice and
jestice I shall have, if I have to see the fat man McKay.” She was
referring to W.W. McKay who was the United States Commissioner for the Utah
Territory.
“Well take a seat in the Marshal’s office and I’ll
see what can be done,” answered Judge Speirs.”
“Aunt Fanny and her ebony opponent vanished, and once in
the Marshal’s room she poured her tale of woe into the ears of that sympathetic
official.”
“You see sir: dis yere gal Alice came into my house when I
dun wont [done wasn’t] there and commenced to raise the very debbil [devil].
She cotchd did yere [caught this here] young fellow dere, and very near choked
de life out of him. I want to know if she am right to come trespassing on my
premises when I don’t was there? I paid my rent and de black thing comes round
there and raises debbil, and send dis dutch -------, comes round with a lot of
good for nothing soldiers and makes night hideous.”
“ I don’t want ‘em to monkey wid me and when dey get meals
from my shanty I want ‘em to pay for it. I go to work and sack coal for the
railroad, I earn de money what buys de grub, and then these good for nothing
white and black trash, comes round and eats it all up, and when I ask them to
pay for, they give me taffy.”
“Aunt Fanny was finally quieted down and bade to go home.
She left but threatened to go right down and roll her feminine adversaries in
the ditch, if it cost her six months and $300.”
From this account of this harassment incident, it revealed
that Fanny Payne had move from the Rio Grande Depot area three city blocks east
to the property of Mrs. Mary Taylor, located on the southwest corner of Third
South and Third West which contained a “house of ill-fame”.
Police court records indicated that many sexual
assignations and intoxication occurred on the property on a regular basis. Many
of the “lewd women” with whom Fanny Payne would be associated in newspaper were
residents of this property. Fanny may have lived in the separate dwelling
from the main tenement where she supported herself running a café at 266 West
on Third South.
In a newspaper account called “That Den Again” from August
1887, Fanny Payne was arrested for being drunk and fighting. “Yesterday an aged
and dilapidated looking female, often seen in and about the police court,
entered the Marshal’s office with a tale of woe.”
“It was substantially as follows: The complainant had been
for about two weeks in the employ of “Aunt Fanny Payne” a colored tenant of
“Mother Taylor’s Row”, cutting apples for drying.”
“Yesterday forenoon Aunt Fanny got drunk and sent the
old woman out to buy some butter. When the latter returned Aunt Fanny charged
her with having paid too much for the butter, so the old woman said, and for
the purpose of equalizing matters proceeded to knock her down.”
“Three times in rapid succession did the negress strike her
aged servant, with prostrating effect, when another colored female tenant of
the den interfered and prevented any more knocking down.”
“Probably Aunt fanny’s story would be that a portion
of the butter money was spent for whiskey by her ancient servant.”
“During the narration of the old female’s story it became
apparent that ‘Mother Taylor’s Row’ still has an odor as bad and a strong as
ever, and that it is a nuisance which should be abated, if any practical method
of doing can be found.”
The odor, referred to in the report, was from a “portion of
the city” using “Old Mother Taylor’s” property “as a dumping ground for garbage
and other offensive matter.” In July 1887 persons living nearby
complained to the city of the smell and petitioned for an abatement of the
property.
In January 1888 the blind baby boy who Fanny Payne had been
caring for died. She had printed in the newspaper on 7 January 1888, the following
announcement. “Died Payne-In the Fourteenth Ward, on the 1st inst, Harry, son
of Mrs. Fanny Payne, aged 5 years. Mrs. Payne (col) begs to return her thanks
to Mormon Friends for the kindness she received from them in her bereavement.
She says she will never forget the Mormons as long as she lives.”
It is very doubtful that the boy was her natural
child as she was 53 years old when the child was born. As that the baby
was born blind, he may have been born to a syphilitic mother.
The Salt Lake Herald reported in July 1888 “Aunt Fannie
Payne is once more in a peck of trouble. It would seem that she was born under
an unlucky star, and as one of her friends put it, “if she were to buy the
Ontario tomorrow, [a silver mine] it would peter out before de end of de week.”
Aunt Fannie is a colored woman on an uncertain age, who for many years past
eked out a precarious livelihood by doing odd jobs here and there, and her
experiences in each of her enterprises has been various and times vivid.”
“Hearing of the approach of the circus, she thought to be
able to earn an honest dollar by the sale of nuts, candies, oranges, etc. near
the circus grounds.”
“Monday morning found her installed in a good
position and Monday evening her stock in trade or a considerable portion of it,
had been converted into cash and the nickels and dimes and quarters were
carefully stowed away in her capacious pockets.”
“Her sales during the day amounted to nearly $20. She was
through with her labors, and had just commenced her return home, when a man
suddenly seized her by the throat and
“Choked de breff from outen her” while another made a grab
at her pocket containing the money, and with a pair of shears of a sharp knife
cut it entirely off and made away with the boodle which was every cent the
victim had. There was considerable hubbub raised, but the fellows made good
their escape.”
Fanny Payne charged three men, in December 1888, of killing
a pig belonging to her. “Frank Swan and two others were arrested for killing a
pig belonging to a colored woman, Fanny Payne. The latter says she was awaken
at one in the morning by hearing the pig squeal and ongoing out, saw Swan in
the act of stabbing the young porker in the throat.”
“He and two companions made off leaving a sack in which
they evidently intended to carry off the carcass. She saw the men again and had
them taken into custody.”
In police court Swan denied that he “had not been near the
place” while “the colored woman said she saw him kill the animal.” It was her
word against his and as “there being no other evidence, the doubt was resolved
in Swan’s favor” and “Swan was discharged” .
Fanny Payne’s next appearance in court was in August 1889
when she quarreled with a man over water rights on the property. “Old Aunt
Fanny Payne, colored, who has a police court record of some years’ standing,
was before Commissioner Noreell in a new role, that of a complaining witness.”
“The defendant was an old one-eyed man named George Moseby,
and the quarrel, like all those which are agitating great minds today, was over
water. It appears that Mrs. Payne had on permission of the owner, [Mrs.
Mary Taylor] boxed in a little spring near her residence on Third South Street.
As Mr. Moseby is dependent upon the stream flowing from the spring for a supply
of water, he took a hatchet and proceeded to cut away of Fanny’s box so that a
better stream would flow.”
“Fanny appeared upon the spot and applied to the gentleman
some delicate but forceful epithets. The old man raised up and flourished his
tomahawk threatened in to chop Fanny’s black brains out, although the said
brains remained in convenient proximity for a considerable amount of time, he
did not disturb their equilibrium.”
“The court held the defendant had technically violated the
statute and therefore adjudged him guilty but in consideration of his old age
and decrepit condition sentence was suspended during good behavior.”
The last mention of Fanny Payne was tragically an attempted
rape of her while she was bedridden with an illness, just weeks before her
death. On 24 October 1892 it was reported that “Charles Plant, a tough looking
specimen of humanity was arraigned on a charge of attempted rape of the person
of Fannie Payne, an old colored woman of 70 years, who is sick.” She was
actually closer to 60 years old. Plant was 25 years old and also referred to as
a “Tough looking tramp.”
“William Powers, who is a watchman, heard the woman
screaming and ran to her assistance. She lives on Second South Street [actually
Third South].”
When arrested “Plant said he was too drunk to know anything
about the occurrence.” He will have a preliminary hearing this afternoon
The bond was fixed at $300.”
At his preliminary hearing in police court, Charles
Plant was permitted to plead guilty to simple assault and “the charge of
attempted rape was withdrawn.” Plant said he was so drunk he didn’t know
anything about what he had done. “He wept when he made his statement and said
that he guessed he was guilty enough but that he didn’t know.”
A man named Ed Dolan who was with Plant that night said
that he was “so drunk that he fell into the gutter instead of going to the
house” where Fanny Payne was bedridden.
The police court believed the evidence that Plant “was so
drunk that he did not know what he was doing” and that since “no injury had
been done to the old lady” he was only fined $5. Both he and Dolan was given
five days for being drunk.
Fanny Payne died 29 August 1892, according to a news
account printed 30 August 1892. In the newspapers her age was given as 71 years
which conflicted with the age, she gave herself in 1870. Her age was probably
given by the attending physician as an estimate.
“The Negress known as Aunt Fanny Payne was found dead
in her bed at her residence, Third south between Second [Third] and Third West
[South] streets . She was 71 years of age.”
Another article, printed on 30 August, commented, “The aged
negress who is known as Aunt Fanny, died yesterday morning. She had been under
the care of Dr. Meacham for two weeks and he gives the cause of her death as
the breaking down of old age. A week ago, Charles Plane made a criminal assault
on the woman, but the doctor says he did not think that was the cause of her
death.”
While living in a hovel, she had good care during her
illness. For the past two weeks two women from the rank of the Salvation Army
have been attending her. She was 71 year of age and had resided in the city for
many years.”
MARY EDWARD WHITE CANNON TAYLOR [1810-1890]
Apostle George Q Cannon’s Stepmother
Fanny Payne had moved from Second South and Fifth [Sixth]
West in the fall of 1885 to a residence at 266 West Third South on a lot known
as “Taylor’s Corner”, owned by Mary Edwards Taylor. The location today is on
northeast corner of Third West and Third South where the Greek Orthodox
Cathedral is located.
Taylor’s corner was a lot 70 feet fronting Third South by
112 feet fronting on Third West, situated on the southwest corner of City Block
60, diagonally across from northwest corner of “the Old Fort” which is Pioneer
Park.
The woman known as “Old Mother Taylor was a “well-known
character of this city,” who had a large home on the property sometimes
referred to as a “mansion.” The address of her home was 373 South Second
[Third] West.
The property also contained two other structures, one
certainly was a barn, and the other was at the address of 266 West Third South.
The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed the property also contained a large
orchard situated on Second [Third] West and that the main house at 373 South
was a “tenement”. The map additionally showed a Jewish Synagogue located on the
southeast corner of city block 60 at First [Second] West and Third South, which
was noted “soon to be vacated”.
“Old Mother Taylor” was actual a Welsh Mormon convert named
Mary Edwards who was married three times. When Joseph White, her first
husband died, she married a Mormon convert George Cannon [1794-1844] in Nauvoo,
Illinois and thus became the stepmother of George Q Cannon, later a leading
Mormon Apostle. Six months after the death of Cannon, Mary Edwards Cannon’s
daughter Elizabeth was born. Mary Cannon was a widow until she married
for the last time on Christmas Day 1847 to a polygamist Charles
Barber Taylor [1819-1895], in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Taylors immigrated to Utah Territory in the John Sharp
Company of 1850, where Charles Taylor became a wealthy merchant in Salt Lake
City. Mary Taylor was 39 years old when she initially traveled to the Salt Lake
Valley with her third husband, Charles Barber Taylor, along with Charles
Taylor's diary mentioned that he adopted Elizabeth Cannon who later married
William Henry Piggot in 1869
Charles and Mary Taylor are listed in the 1850 and 1860
federal census of Utah Territory as residence of the 14th
Ward of the Great Salt Lake City. Charles Taylor was one of the first butchers
in Salt Lake.
Charles Taylor left Mary alone in Utah during the Civil
War, in order to serve a religious mission to England from 1862 to 1865. Upon
his return he married Martha Burrows in 1866. She was a Mormon convert that
Taylor brought back to Utah. They were married by Mormon Apostle Heber C.
Kimball and became the parents of eight children.
The 1880 federal census of Utah listed Mary C. Taylor as
the wife of Charles P. Taylor a “retired merchant”. His age was listed as 61
and hers as 69 years old. They were listed as living on the “east side” of
Second [Third] West. Charles B. Taylor was also enumerated a second time
as a 60-year-old “butcher” living with his plural wife Martha Burrows along
with three children under the age of 10.
Charles Taylor divorced Mary Taylor in 1885, when she was
75 years old probably due to her alcoholism and the notoriety of the certain
vice being mentioned in the newspapers. However, she was given a large property
lot on the then outskirts of the city located across from Pioneer Park.
In the 1880’s Mother Taylor’s home and property became an
infamous location for prostitution and her “mansion” was referred to often as a
“house of Ill repute” whose “inmates” were frequently mentioned as appearing
before judges of the police Court for various offenses.
Mary Taylor was arrested in May 1885 and a reporter wrote
of her condition. “Mrs. Taylor, who lives in a wretched filthy state, in a
house at the corner of Third South and Second [Third] West Streets was
arrested on a charge of drunkenness but was discharged.” Mary Taylor was 75
years old at the time and the court was more and likely influenced by her
relationship to George Q Cannon, a prominent Mormon official.
In April 1886 there was a report of a police raid on the
property of Mrs. Mary Taylor “a disputable house at the corner of Second
[Third] west and Third South streets.” Arrested by the police were Mrs. Taylor,
the owner, and Emily Passey, Maggie Hill, Martin Cassidy, Mrs. Souter, Nellie Humphries,
and Sallie Davis.” Fanny Payne was the actual complainant who charged
Mary Taylor with “keeping a house of ill-fame.”
Maggie Hill in turned, then “swore out a complaint” against
Fanny Payne, “another inmate of the house who had been called as a witness”
Hill charged Payne , “with keeping a house of ill-fame.”
The arrest of the “inmates” must have come from a clash
between 75-year-old Mary Taylor and 53-year-old Fanny Payne as that Payne was
referred to as “one of the occupants of the disreputable den, on the corner of
Second [Third] West and Third South, where the disgraceful row occurred which
might be abated as a nuisance without anybody in the neighborhood
kicking.”
The April police court trial resulted in a verdict of
guilty for all those arrested and a fine of $30 was imposed in each case “which
means 30 days imprisonment for each” as the women were unable to pay.
Fanny Payne was charged with keeping a house of ill-fame
when she appeared before Judge George D. Pyper and was found guilty. “Aunt
Fanny Payne, the colored individual who had been found guilty of keeping a
house of ill-fame, was sentenced to a fine of $100 and three-months
imprisonment.”
Another account of the April Police raid wrote “ This
morning [19 April 1886], the trial of the Negress, Fanny Payne, for keeping a
house of ill-fame, was held before Justice Pyper, and the accused was found
guilty. She will receive sentence tomorrow at 10 a.m.”
“Two other females of the ‘cullud’ [colored] persuasion,
Alice Valentine and Hattie Clark were arrested on a charge of vagrancy in being
associated with lewd and dissolute persons and the case set for hearing this
afternoon.”
“The officers have done a good thing in prosecuting the
inmates of the den where these women and those sentenced Saturday were found
and if the place is cleaned out the work will be appreciated.”
Valentine and Clark were referred to as “two young colored
belles of shady reputation,” and the Salt Lake Herald called then “The Belles
of the Kitchen.”
“the two-colored belles- Alice Valentine and Hattie Clark
-who were run in o the charge of vagrancy and prostitution, were each adjudged
guilty, and were charged with vagrancy and prostitution and sentenced to
a fine of $30. Not having the necessary amount of funds, they will labor in the
jail kitchen for a period of thirty days”
“Both these girls have made themselves particularly
notorious of late and considering their years they probably are the hardest
couple that have ever disgraced the town. One of them, Hattie Clark, claims to
be 13 and the other is not yet 18.”
“They are shocking examples of youthful depravity, but not
much more so, however, than some white boys of supposedly respectable
parentage, who have been frequently seen in their company.”
Alice Valentine was mentioned a year earlier in July 1885
when a man named Nathan Grose “battered Alice Valentine and got $60 or sixty
Days” sentenced in the Police Court.
Hattie Clark was in court again in January 1887 “Hattie
Clark and Lottie Perkins, two of the ebony hued damsels who are in the habit of
conducting themselves in a very loose and unlady-like manner were arraigned on
the charge of keeping a house of ill-fame. Both damsels plead guilty, and in
consideration of the fact that they had adorned the Police Court so often
before, they were given a heavy sentence- ninety days in the city jail.
In July 1886 Dr. Jeter Clinton reported a new case of
Scarlet Fever in the “old place immediately adjoining the somewhat notorious
Mother Taylor property.”
The inspector of buildings nuisances for Salt Lake City, in
September 1886, reported that the city marshal “or someone else should cast an
eye at the remnants of a house on the Old Mother Taylor property. There are a
number of crumbling adobe walls standing there which will someday fall and
envelope some of the numerous children constantly playing under them.”
There was also a case of diphtheria reported at Fanny
Payne’s residence on Third South Street between First [Second] and Second
[Third] West in May 1887. Diphtheria once was a major cause of illness and
death among children. “A case of diphtheria was reported by Dr. Clinton
yesterday. It is at the residence of “Aunt Fanny” Payne (colored) who runs a
restaurant on the Mother Taylor property.
Lewdness on Third South and Third West
The Salt Lake Herald reported on the conditions of the
property of “Mother Taylor” in January 1887 writing; “Among the Slums A Very
Salty Subject- The Row in the Stable- A descent was made upon the notorious and
infamous establishment known as the Mother Taylor property late on Friday
night. Mrs. Charles and John Crocker were arrested, charged with lewdness, and
taken to jail.”
“A short time afterwards Mrs. Passey was also arrested
charged with indecent exposure. She was found at the City Hotel. The
particulars are too revolting and vile for publication. Even the Tribune will
scarcely dare handle them this morning.”
“The charges against all were proven and the three worthies
were each fined $99 and sentenced to 100 days imprisonment in the City Jail.
Emily Passey, Mrs. Charles, and John Crocker, charged with lewd conduct, was
sentenced to 100 days imprisonment, and fined $99. As none had the funds to pay
their fines, the “similar offense each received’ will keep them in jail for 199
days.”
In October 1887, when Mary Taylor was 77 years old, she was
arrested in a ‘raving state of intoxication.” “Mother Taylor picked up drunk in
a nude condition” and was fined $30 or 30 days in jail.”
In 1888 a grand jury went to Mary Taylor’s property to
inspect it after receiving criticism of the conditions of the lot. In
September, a newspaper reported, “Complaints having been made as to the filthy
conditions of Mother Taylor’s premises, corner of Third South and Second
[Third] West streets, members of the grand jury visited the place yesterday
afternoon on a tour of inspection. The premises were found to be in a very
filthy condition and the jurors ordered the nuisance to be abated without
delay.”
The newspaper was critical of the Grand Jury for not also
condemning other property in the area as being as bad. “A Second South
Street subscriber desires to know how it was that the grand jury during the
recent visit to the Mother Taylor property in search of nuisances, failed to
find any on the way down. Mother Taylor owner of the “Taylor corner was
among those indicted for keeping a nuisance.”
Death of Mother Taylor
Two articles from 1890 mention Mary Taylor and her
property. In August “at 12:15 last night as a Rio Grande employee was near Old
Mother Taylor’s corner at Second [Third] West and Third South, he was set upon
by two footpads and knocked in the head and robbed of $220 and a
watch.
Then in a small notice printed on 10 October 1890, a brief
death notice of Mary Taylor was announced. No mention was made that she
was the stepmother of George Q Cannon.
“Old Mother Taylor, a well-known character of this city
died at her residence near the Old fort a few days ago.”
She died October 7, 1890, in Salt Lake, of “General
Debility, Old Age” and was buried October 8th, in the Salt Lake Cemetery, plot
G-10-9-4W. Her tombstone’s epithet says, “ A Devoted Mother, A Friend of
the Poor, May She Rest in Peace.”
The NOTORIOUS EMILY PASSEY
According to the 1880 federal Census “Fred and Emily Passy”
lived at 74 South First [State] East Street in a building which was a Chinese
Laundry and lodging house near Plum Alley. Nine others inhabited the same
address. The building must have been divided into three sections as it
contained three heads of households.
Fred
Passey was listed in the census as household 227 in the Thirteenth Ward of Salt
Lake City. He was listed as a 39-year-old “cook in a restaurant”, husband to
29-year-old Emily Passey. Both were English emigrants, and both had been
unemployed for over a year.
Fred Passey [1843-1915] had come to Utah in 1861 with his
Mormon parents at the age of 17 within the Joseph Horne Company. He had
married Emily, last name unknown prior to 1880 but her background is unknown.
Fred Passey was not listed in the 1879 city directory.
Others living in the same accommodations were members of
household 226 which contained five Chinese men, Ling Sang and Lee Sang, Sing
Ah, Soon Ah, Sam Ah and Gin Ah all who gave their occupations as “washing” or
owning a “washhouse.” Their ages ranged from 35 to 18 years old and all
were emigrants from Canton, China.
A 35-year-old Chinese man named Sang Ling was the head of a
household 225 that contained 54-year-old Lucinda Watts, 49-year-old Jane Suter,
and Jane’s 17-year-old son Francis Suter.
Sang Ling was the unmarried proprietor of a “washhouse” and
a native of China. Watts was a native of Connecticut and gave her occupation as
a “washer” woman and Jane Suter stated she was born in Scotland but gave had no
occupation. Both Lucinda Watts and Jane Sutter also stated they were
“widows”. Francis “Frank” Suter stated he worked in a restaurant perhaps along
with Fred Passey.
All these individuals living at 74 South First East, except
for Sang Ling had been unemployed 12 months. Ling said he had been out of work
two months.
In April 1881 Emily Passey who had been recently released
jailed was arrested along with her husband.
“Badly Beaten.- Today [16 April 1881] about noon a man was
badly beaten with a club by an enraged husband, in a alley way on the east side
of Main Street, just opposite the Walker House. The husband’s name was Passey,
a miner form Bingham. We did not learn the name of the other. The trouble was
over Passey’s wife.”
“About noon on Saturday [16 April 1881] in the
vicinity of the Wasatch Hotel, considerable excitement was caused by a man, who
looked like a laborer, walking up to the drug store, his head, neck, and the
front of his shirt being literally covered with blood.”
“He stated that while walking down the street, a man pulled
him to the door and beat him over the head with a club. He informed the
parties, and he and Fred Passy and his wife were arrested.”
“Last evening, they were before Judge Pyper, when it was
brought out in testimony that the man had been seen with Mrs. Passey by her
husband. He watched them go down the street into his house, and after waiting
about five minutes, went in. He found the man on the bed and his wife in the
room, and he attacked the man with a rock and beat him pretty badly.”
“Passy was discharged, the victim fined $10, and Mrs.
Passey given thirty days. She had been let out but one day ago.”
“The victim of the beating had been drinking very hard and
was doubtless drunk when assaulted.”
Fred Passey’s assault on the main must have appeared to be
justified by the court for him to be “discharged,” however the “victim of the
beating” was fined $10 probably for being drunk, and Emily Passey was given
thirty days in jail for prostitution. It was probably at this time the couple
separated as they are not listed in the city directories.
In May 1882 Emily Passey was arrested on a charge of keeping
a “disorderly house” a term for where prostitution occurred and in 1883, she
was arrested and fined $10 for being drunk and disorderly. “An individual was
arrested yesterday [May 21] together with Mrs. Passy for lewd conduct. The
woman was charged with abusing the officers. She must have been an alcoholic as
she was arrested again 1883 for being “a straight, undiluted
drunk”.
“Record of Sin. Mrs., Passy, a silly intox fined $5” “Mrs.
Passy, the same lady as above referred to was required to donate $10 for
breaking jail. The fact in this case is that Mrs. Passey did not break any jail
whatever. She was working out one of her fines washing the back yard of the
jail and finding the coast clear, she skipped by the light of the sun as
Launcelot Gobbo says. ‘The demon said run, and she ran’. She may by this sudden
departure have broken the jailor’s heart, but it is a sheer technicality to say
that that harmless female is capable of breaking anything more formidable than
a gin bottle.”
Emily Passey eventually became friends with a woman named
Betty Wilson whose drunken escapades were also often repeated in newspaper
accounts.
By March 1885, “Mrs. Passey” was being referred to in the
papers as “notorious”. She was arrested again in Benite’s disreputable saloon
at 61 East Second South along with one of the proprietors, an Italian Bartender
named John Pastoni who was also arrested and charged with keeping a disorderly
house and resisting officers.
In an article called “Wipe It Out. The Infernal Den on
second South Again Boiling,” it detailed a ruckus at Benites where Emily Passey
and Betty Wilson were arrested. “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 [March 3] 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. There was yelling, screaming,
profanity, and general confusion and the police diving into the midst of it
brought out two women, Mrs. Passey and Betty Wilson, and bore them screaming to
the jail.”
“Notorious Mrs. Passey and Bettie Wilson were arrested at 3
o’clock this afternoon [March 3] in Benite’s place, also an Italian bartender.
From the appearances of the trio’s general celebration ad set-to had been taken
part in. The officers escorted them to jail while the usual number of the
curious followed.” She paid a $10 fine for being drunk and
disorderly.
Emily Passey probably was jailed for ten days as that on
March 14, she was in court again fined $10 again along with a prostitute named
Sally Davis.
Sally Ann Davis was in Police Court records as early as May
1881 when she was among three women, one civilian, and several soldiers”
indulging “in low and obscene language, profanity, and lewd conduct.” Sally
Davis was a habitual arrestee, usually for profanity and being drunk. She
cohabitated with a man named Barney Davidson or Davis who was described as
“coal-colored”. By 1887 she was being called “Aunt Sally Davis which would
indicate that she may have been mixed race.”
In 1888 it was said of her Sally Davis, who has seen more
often inside of the city jail than perhaps any woman in the west.”
For the third time “the notorious Mrs. Passey was fined $5
by Justice Spiers this morning [March 24] for the old offense, drunkenness.” In
April, she found herself in court just once [April20] on the “same old
offense, drunkenness” but was only fined $5.
A description was given of Emily Passey by a reporter in
May 1885 when she appeared before Judge Adam Spiers once more. “A short, chubby
woman, with her sleeves rolled up to the shoulders, was interrupted in her work
of scrubbing cells, to be brought before Judge Speirs on a charge of
drunkenness.”
“What is your plea, Mrs. Passey?” the Judge inquired.”
“My pleas is, I guess I had a little drop sufficient to
walk and not be brought in a wagon,” rattled off the lady in an indifferent
manner.”
“You will be fined seven dollars and a half.”
“That don’t hurt me a bit,” replied the lady, flaunting out
of the room, and taking up her work again on the floor of the cells.”
On May 19, Emily Passey was mentioned with other miscreants
“arrayed before Judge Speirs.” “Mrs. Passey was everything that is bad and had
to pay $20.”
A month later, “during the afternoon [26 June 1885] the
somewhat notorious Mrs. Passey sailed into the court room, and planting herself
on a bench, demanded an immediate trial. The Judge and spectators looked up in
astonishment and she again asserted her readiness for trial.
Officer Hilton followed shortly after and escorted her to
the jail. It seems that some two weeks ago, Mrs. Passey was arrested while on
one of her regular sprees but had taken advantage of an opportunity offered her
and vanished. She remained out of sight of the officers until yesterday when
Policeman Hilton nabbed her.” She was given thirty days in jail “for her bad
conduct.”
Later in July 1885 a newspaper reported, “Two wild-eyed
women, with the effects of intemperance stamped all over their countenances,
and who sail under the names of Mrs. Passey and Mrs. Wilson-- names which have
become notorious for their frequent appearances on the police court records--
were brought before Justice Spiers this morning [July 29] charged with being
drunk and profane. They pleaded guilty to the charge and were fined $15 each.”
Emily Passey and Betty Wilson when they were released in
August soon were joined by a woman named Nellie Humphries in Salt Lake City’s
newspaper accounts.
“Three of a Kind. Nellie Humphries, Mrs. Wilson, and Mrs.
Passey, while under the influence of liquor, created a disturbance in an eating
house kept by a colored woman, near the Denver & Rio Grande depot, on
Saturday [August 15] afternoon.
In the melee windows were broken, furniture smashed, and a
perfect pandemonium created. Mrs. Passey was too badly used up, being black and
blue from the blows she received.”
His Honor, Justice Speirs, fined “Nellie Humphries $10, and
Mrs. Wilson $15, for the part they took in the row, and the examination of Mrs.
Passey will be held when she is able to appear.” Emily Passey was the older of
the three women and perhaps their leader as she was referred to as “mother of
the participants.”
The weather must have been extremely warm as a headline
seemed to indicate that it was. “Effects of the Hot Wave. Mrs. Passey in the
‘Cooler’ Again---Black Amazon Who licked Three White women.”
“The notorious Mrs. Passey, whose familiar name is a
continued ornament to the police docket, was brought up standing on a three-ply
charge of drunk, profane, and disorderly. Her case will be heard tomorrow [19
August 1885].”
“Fanny Payne, a colored individual of fighting abilities,
engaged in a free-for-all scraping match with three white women last Sunday,
and unmercifully battered one of her white sisters, for which she will be tried
tomorrow.”
Emily Passey did some jail time for the fight that occurred
in Fanny Payne’s restaurant. “Mother Passey has retired to obscurity for the
space of twenty-five days due to the fact that she was proven guilty of
drunkenness, disturbing the peace, and destroying property, and had not the
necessary funds to liquidate the amount assessed against her.”
She was mentioned again until November 1885. “A sextette,
composed of William Mace, John White, Ed Walker, Mrs. Passey, Mrs. Wilson, and
Nellie Humphries, were all arrested and charged with disturbing the peace in
that somewhat famous resort known as the Taylor building on Third South
Street.”
“The rumpus lasted until 12’0clock Tuesday [November 17]
night to 7 o’clock yesterday morning [November 18] when they were nabbed by the
police.”
The three feminines pleaded guilty, and the males like
Father Adam, endeavored to shift the responsibility to the shoulder of the
women.
William Mace, however, was fined $10, Passey $10, Wilson
$10, Humphries $7.50, and White and Walker were discharged.”
Another account of the incident reported, “The police this
morning arrested a number of low characters who frequently engage in drunken
brawls at a house at the corner of Second [Third] West and Third South Street a
“somewhat famous resort known as the Taylor building. William Mace, John
White, E. A. Walker, Mrs. Passey, Mrs. Wilson, and Nellie Humphries were among
the participants taken into custody.”
Emily Passey spent the time in jail rather than paid the
fine as that she was arrested again at the end of November. “Walter Porcher and
Mrs. Passey were each fined $10 today [November 30] for being drunk and
profane.”
The following year in February 1886, she was arrested
again. “The old, old story told again, Mrs. Passey indulged in too much
alcohol, and as a consequence, fell into the clutches of the law. She will
ornament the jail kitchen for ten days in lieu of $10 in silver or any other
coin, with which to pay her fine.”
Emily Passey was involved in a disturbance at Mary Taylor’s
“house of ill-fame” which occurred in April 1886. A fellow named “Cassidy was
taken into City Hall yesterday [April 16] afternoon for creating a disturbance
of the peace and demolishing some property in the Fourteenth Ward, and later in
the evening, at Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Passey whose frequent arrests and status
in the city prison have rendered their names familiar to the public in that
connection, were also taken and lodge behind the bars for participating in the
same row.”
After Emily Passey was released the following month, she made
the papers again. “Yesterday [13 May] afternoon Moses Burns was convicted of
drunkenness and fined $5 in Police court. He declared that he had come from
Stockton, Tooele County, to be cared for in a hospital, and had taken some
laudanum [Morphine] and fallen asleep at the place where he was picked up by
the police. The evidence, however, showed that Burns’ story had little truth in
it, and the offense was clearly proven.
The fellow paid his fine and also deposited enough
cash to liberate the notorious Mrs. Passey from jail. Later in the evening the
two were found together in a state of beastly intoxication in a house of ill
fame, whither they had resorted after being set at liberty. Both were lodged in
jail and this morning entered pleas of guilty to a violation of the city
ordinance against prostitution and were each sentenced to three months
imprisonment and to pay a $99. To satisfy the judge they will remain in jail
189 days.”
Emily Passey was detained six months in jail and when
released in November she was arrested again. “November Mrs. Passey was arrested
today [November 22] on charges of drunkenness and vagrancy.”
“Mrs. Passey bobbed up serenely in the Police
Court yesterday to answer to the charge of being a common prostitute. Emily
admitted her guilt, saying has “guessed there was no use doing nothing else,”
and the judge looked severe, as he said, “You will be sentenced to sixty days
in the County, Jail, Mrs. Passey.”
“Mrs. Passy for vagrancy was given 60 days in jail.”
She was barely released from jail when she reoffended in
January 1887. On January 28, Emily Passey was “found at the City Hotel. The
particulars are too revolting and vile for publication.”
“The City Hotel or Salt Lake House, as it is now
called-resorted to for the purpose of lewdness. For some time past the place
has had an unsavory reputation, and if reports are to be believe, the orgies
carried on there would have made the average demi monde blush.”
Emily Passey was charged with “indecent exposure and fined
$99 and sentenced to 100 days in jail. As she was not able to pay her fine, she
was locked up but was released by 5 March 1887 when she was arrested again.
“Mrs. Passy who spends a great part of her time in the city jail, was again
arrested last night for violating the city ordinance.”
Once out of jail, Emily Passey was again held on a charge
of lewd conduct in September 1887. “Mrs. Passey and one of her numerous
admirers were run in last evening [September 5] on the old charge. They will
probably get 100 days each today.”
“An individual who gave his name as John Williams,
but who wanted to be known as [Jack] McDonald, today [September 6], was
arrested in company with the notorious Mrs. Passey, and held on the charge of
lewd conduct. The couple alleged that they were husband and wife, but as that
there’s no record of their marriage in the Probate Court, either the justice at
Bingham, who they said married them, failed to comply with the Edmunds law, or
the twain have invented the story in the hope of keeping out of jail-most
likely the latter.”
The last mention of Emily Passey in a newspaper was in June
1890 when The Salt Lake Herald, quick to criticize the Salt Lake Tribune
attacked their rival’s critiques of theater performances that evidently the
reviewer never actually saw. They wrote “Evidently it would be all the same to
the Tribune critic if Mrs. Passey or Aunt Sally Davis were cast for the leading
lady; the gushing notice would certainly follow.”
After this mention, both Aunt Sally Davis and Emily Passey
passed from narratives. The death register for Utah does not record either of
them having died in Utah although their death possibly simply was not recorded.
It is probable they died of alcoholism as it is doubtful, they had the funds to
leave the territory.
The NOTORIOUS BETTY WILSON
Betty Wilson was mentioned in newspapers in 1880 for
drunkenness. “This morning [30 January 1880] Mrs. Wilson and Peter Johnson, for
drunkenness, were fines $10 and $5 respectively.” Again, in March, “Mrs.
Wilson was fined $5 for being drunk [13 March 1880]
She may have left the territory for a while as she is not
mentioned again until 1883. “Betty Wilson was assed $5 and costs Saturday [17
March 1883] for drunkenness.” Again, in August, “Betty was assessed and fined
by Justice Speirs on Wednesday [1 August 1883]
Betty White was not as frequently mentioned as appearing in
the Salt Lake Police Court as Emily Passey, but she was there often.
“Betty Wilson for drunkenness, profanity and obscene language, was today [15 January
1884] fined $15 and for destroying property $10.”
On 11 February 1884 Betty Wilson and a man named Phil
Schumann were charged with lewd conduct and were fined $30 each in Judge Adam
Speirs court. Later in May 1884, she and a man named James Fury were sentenced
to jail also for “lewd conduct” and fined $30. “Betty and James are old
offenders it seems and are not ambitious to keep out of jail or out of the
print.”
Sometime in 1884 Betty Wilson is being associated with
Emily Passey in print. “Two ladies named Betty Wilson and Mrs. Passey were up
before Police Court yesterday [June 7] to answer for the periodic spree. They
were taxed according to the tariff and will be probably sober for a week.”
Another account later in the year mentioned “Betty Wilson,
an old offender, was brought into jail for being drunk. She had as usual a
bottle of whiskey in her pocket.” Her last lock up in 1884 was “for being
drunk, profane, and using obscene language, was fined $29, which means twenty
days in jail.”
“Betty Wilson, an old offender, was brought into jail at 1
o’clock this morning [July 31] for being drunk. She had as usual a bottle of
whisky in her pocket.”
“Betty Wilson for being drunk profane, and using obscure
language was fined $20, which means twenty days in jail.”
In March 1885, Betty Wilson teamed up with Emily Passey and
raised a ruckus at Benites Saloon. “There were yelling and screaming, profanity
and general confusion, and the police diving into the midst of it, brought out
two women, Mrs. Passey and Betty Wilson, and bore them screaming to
jail.”
For her participation in the fight in Fanny Payne’s
establishment in August1885, Betty White was arrested and fined. “Nellie
Humphreys, of unsavory fame and reputation, was up on the usual charge of drunk
and disorderly. Ten dollars was the amount assessed against her. She will scrub
out the amount during the next ten days.
Mrs. Wilson will assist the above unfortunate, during her
incarceration and in addition will stay five days longer, $15 being the amount
of her fine for unlawful conduct.”
After he release in September Betty Wilson was in
trouble again. “Mrs. Wilson was fine $15 in the Police Court today [September
5] for engaging in a disgraceful disturbance at a frequented rendezvous on the
corner of Third South and Second [Third] West.”
She managed to stay out of the news again until December
1885. “Mrs. Wilson, an old offender before the police court bar of justice, was
fined $25 this morning December 4] by Judge Speirs, for being drunk, profane
and disorderly. When the Judge pronounced the fine the old lady heaved a sigh
like a woman getting a tooth pulled, who is determined not to show the
operation hurts.”
Court records for Betty Wilson are absent after this time
and she too like, Emily Passey disappears from newspapers.
The NOTORIOUS NELLIE HUMPHRIES
Nellie Humphries was the wife of a man named Frank J
Humphries [1850-1887]. Her age is unknown. The first mention of Frank Humphries
was in January 1882 when he shot a man named P. [Peter] Young who had tried to
enter the room where he and his wife were sleeping. “Frank Humphries was
arrested and appeared before Justice [Adam] Speirs to answer to the charge of
doing the shooting. He states that on Saturday [January 7], night, some person came
to the widow of the room where he and his wife were sleeping, and insisted on
getting in. After warning the party off for the Fourth [Fifth] time he fired a
random shot out the window, for the purpose of scaring the fellow away. He was
surprised to find subsequently that the shot had taken effect.”
“It appears that Young was intoxicated and was under the
impression that he was getting into his own room. Humphries waived an
examination and was held to answer to the grand jury in $500 bonds.”
Humphries was mentioned in a Police Court Record again 17
November 1882. He “was fined $10 for being drunk and for disturbing the peace.
Mrs. Humphries was fined $10 for being drunk and for disturbing the peace. John
Garrison was fined $10 for assault and Battery and Nellie Garrison was fined
$10 for being drunk, for disturbing the peace and for profanity.”
John C Garrison later in 1883 was charged “with keeping a
house of ill-fame, near the Salt Lake Stables on Commercial Street. A warrant
was issued, the officer arrested Garrison and four inmates of his house-one man
three women- and locked them all up.”
During the trial “the details occupied all the afternoon
[March 10] and were disgusting in the extreme, showing the house complained of,
to be the filthiest den that has been in Salt Lake for years.” “This place has
been for a long time a great source of trouble to police affairs and the
parties have several times been arrested and fined for disturbances.”
“Garrison was fined $99 and sentenced too fifty days in
jail. Three of the other parties [Nellie Garrison, John Humphries,
and Nellie Humphries] each pleaded guilty, for being “drunk, profane and
disorderly” and were “fined $50- or fifty-day labor.”
Frank Humphries was back in Police Court in 1883 charged
with assault with a deadly weapon and he was also arrested several times in
1884 for fighting and being drunk however he was not mentioned again until his
death in 1887
In an article written 17 August 1885, Nellie Humphreys, “of
unsavory fame and reputation,” was mentioned that she “was up on the usual
charge of drunk and disorderly. Ten dollars was the amount assessed against
her. She will scrub out the amount during the next ten days. Mrs. [Betty] Wilson
will assist the above unfortunate, during her incarceration and in addition
will stay five days longer, $15 being the amount of her fine for unlawful
conduct.”
Nellie Humphries was referred to as a “street walker” in a
Salt Lake Herald newspaper account of her arrest in 1886 for committing a sex
act. “Peter Jackson and Nellie Humphries, one of the lowest and most disputable
streetwalkers and back alley frequents, that ever disgraced this section of the
country, were arrested early Friday morning by Officers [Arthur] Pratt and
[Andrew J] Burt and appeared before Judge [George D] Pyper yesterday [May 29]
for trial. The evidence went to prove that Mrs. Humphries and Jackson had been
caught in ‘flagrante delicto’ in a room in the rear of a beer saloon; that
their actions were of the vilest description.”
“There was no testimony for the defense, but both were
discharged, Judge Pyper holding that according to Judge [Charles] Zane’s ruling
in the recent L. & L. cases, the couple were guilty of no offense, because
the acts complained of had not been committed in a public place. This will be
glorious news to all the women of the Humphries stamp and their still lower and
more degraded male associates.”
In August 1886 Nellie Humphries was arrested during a raid on
Mary Taylor’s property by police. “An array of dissolute persons faced the
judge on the opening of court this afternoon [August 21]- the result of a raid
last night on the disreputable house at the corner of Third South and Second
[Third] West Streets. The prisoners were Nathan Gross, Daniel Clark, a white
woman named Nell Humphries, and two negresses and a mulatto- Sallie and Dosie
Clark and Sadie Lancaster. These with a number of others, among them a corporal
from Fort Douglas, were found in a small room half drunk or stupefied from the
effect of morphine. They were all charged with vagrancy.”
Nellie Humphries later became associated with a girl named
Mary Pettit who went by the name May, along with two men, George Pettit, and
John G. Sharp. The relationship between George and May is not known but may
have been brother and sister. May Pettit never went by the name of Mrs. Pettit
and George was a young man born in 1867.
In August 1884, George Pettit was arrested for
robbery, however he was not sentenced until February 1885. An article from
August 1884 stated that “Several days ago, while Walter Westermann and George
Pettit were up Parley’s Canyon, the former stole $11.50 from his father, and
Pettit, in turn, forcibly took $7.50 of the amount from Westermann. They were
both arrested, and yesterday [August 30], Pettit pleaded guilty to the charge
of highway robbery, and Westermann pleaded guilty to the charge of larceny.
Justice [Adam] Speirs postponed both cases till tomorrow at which time he will
pass sentence on the offenders.”
George Pettit must have withdrawn his plea as that in
October he was charged with robbery and a lawyer named E.B. Critchow was
“appointed by the court as counsel for defendant, and plea of not guilty
entered.” Petitt’s bail was fixed at $500, and he remained in jail until his
case came to trial in February 1885.
“When the case of George Pettit, charged with robbery, came
up in District Court this morning, [February 18], a young man of about 18,
withdrew his plea of not guilty and pleaded guilty to petit larceny. From the
evidence it seems that the amount stolen was only $7, and that he was scarcely
responsible for the act when it was committed. He is a weak-minded person, and
the circumstances under which he committed the theft were not of such a nature
as to throw much blame on the defendant. He is an orphan, and several testified
to his former good character. The sentence was therefore suspended, and the
defendant liberated.”
Pettit was in more serious trouble in June 1885 when he was
arrested again on a charge of theft. “George Pettit will hereafter find it
cheaper to buy his clothing at first-class prices than try and steal it. For
purloining an overcoat belonging to John Miller, he was this morning [June 12]
fined $75 and in lieu thereof will do a couple of months with the
‘gang’.”
“George Pettit, a boy who claimed the Eight Ward square as
his headquarters, stole an overcoat from John Mellen valued at $18 and sold it
to Fred K Hanson; he was yesterday [June 12] tried and sentenced to
seventy-five day’s companionship with the galley slaves.”
George Pettit is not mentioned again until he was arrested
in March 1886 for being drunk and disorderly in December 1886. He was called a
vagrant and sentenced to “imprisonment in the county jail for 50 days.” When he
was released, in 1887 the young man was arrested again in the company of John
G. Sharp, Nellie Humphries and May Pettit
“Last Night [April 21] the police arrested John G. Sharp,
of Park City, George Pettit, Nellie Humphreys, and May Pettit, on the charge of
vagrancy. As the whole lot are dissolute characters, it is probable that the
affair will develop into a serious one for them. They pleaded guilty to
vagrancy this afternoon and were sentenced to thirty days’ imprisonment
each.”
Nellie Humphries and May Pettit probably supported a
morphine drug addiction as described in the report of their arrested again in
1887. “May Pettit, a long, lean, black-eyed damsel, who has frequently been
before Judge Pyper, was again arraigned yesterday [April 22] on the charge of
vagrancy. Accompanying her also were the notorious Nellie Humphries, George
Pettit, and John G Sharp, the later of Park City. All four plead guilty to the
charge and each was sentenced to a fine of $30 or in default thereof thirty
days in jail. “They accepted the latter alternative.”
“Both women are confirmed morphine fiends and [George]
Pettit, the male, is also said to be a “hitter of the pipe,” suggesting he
smoked opium.
“The Pettit girl in particular who does not appear to be
over 23 or 24 years of age, presented a very repulsive appearance.”
“These four disreputable parties pleaded guilty to the
charge and thereby stopped the particulars in the case from coming to light.
‘Tis well they did.”
Nellie Humphries was still a married woman, and within two
weeks of her arrest her husband, Frank Humphries [1850-1887] died in
May.
“I’ve Come in to Die. Frank Humphries Ends a
Checkered Career. Frank Humphries, husband of the notorious Nellie Humphries,
who has been a familiar figure around town for many years; a man who under
other circumstances, might have carved out for himself a brilliant career, died
suddenly last evening [May 7] at a room in the house known as the Old Seventies
building on First [State] East Street.”
“He entered the room of a man named Reese and announced,
“I’ve come in to die.” Almost before the words left his lips he fell forward on
his face.”
At first his death was thought to be a suicide, but the
attending physician said the cause was the “general breaking up of the system
caused by incessant dissipation” which at the time meant a descent into
drunkenness and sexual obsession.
“On Humphries’ person was found a letter, dated New
Orleans, and signed ‘Your Affectionate Mother.’ It is couched in the mostly
kindly and endearing terms and was evidently written by a fond mother who had
no knowledge of the depths of degradation to which her ‘darling boy’ had sunk.
The remains were taken in charge by Sexton Taylor.”
John G. Sharp and May Pettit were arrested again and in
July 1887 were “each sentenced to fifty days imprisonment having been convicted
of vagrancy.”
Nellie Humphries and May Pettit besides prostitution
supported their morphine habit by theft. In December 1887, they were arrested
again, charged with larceny for stealing the furniture from an unoccupied house
and selling it to a Secondhand Store.
“Nellie Humphries and May Pettit, two notorious characters,
were arrested today [December 22, on the charge of larceny. When arraigned in
the police Court, they pleaded not guilty, and the trial was set for tomorrow
afternoon. It is alleged that they went to a man who had temporary charge of an
unoccupied house in this city and represented that they were in a destitute
condition and would like to obtain shelter from the cold overnight.”
“He granted the desired permission, but a day or two
afterward discovered they had taken the little furniture there in the house,
sold it at a secondhand store and disappeared. This was a couple of weeks ago,
and they have managed to keep out of the way until today.”
The women were still involved with John G. Sharp as that
the three found themselves in court 23 December 1887, charged with sending
“threatening letters” more than likely to the E. J Page.
The trial of J.G Sharp, who is charged with sending
threatening letters to Mr. Page, the secondhand dealer, for the purpose of
extorting money is set for 2 p.m. today [Dec 23]. At the same time, “The trial
of Nellie Humphries and May Petit, charged with larceny was postponed until
next Tuesday [December 27].
John G. Sharp however was tried and sentenced. “J.G. Sharp
for sending a threatening letter to E. J. Page, for purpose of extorting money,
was fined $50, in default of which he will spend fifty days in jail.” “Not
being able to raise the necessary cash, he will spend the holidays in
jail.”
On 27 December 1887, “May Pettit and Nellie Humphries, two
Commercial Street belles were sentenced to sixty days imprisonment in the
county jail for sending threatening letters.”
It was not until January 1888 that the two women were
sentenced for the theft of the furniture. “In Police Court yesterday, [January
18] May Pettit and Nellie Humphries pleaded guilty of petty larceny and were
fined $75 each and sentenced to fifty days imprisonment. They will reside at
the city jail for a period of 125 days.
In March 1888, May Pettit, “who got away from the city jail
nearly three weeks ago, was retaken yesterday. [March 23]. It was probably
during her escape that she obtained some strychnine poison that she took in
April.
While back in jail May Pettit took strychnine poison and
then begged for morphine as a relief, which was given to her. She stated that
she had been in the habit of using the drug for over five years. Nellie
Humphries at the time also was said to have taken the strychnine, but her
symptoms were not as severe as May Pettit.
“According to her statement [Humphries], May Pettit had the
strychnine in a small bottle found in her room when she entered the jail and
took it solely because she could not live without morphine. Mrs. Humphries took
a very small dose. The jail physician thought the whole thing was a desperate
attempt on the part of the women to obtain morphine.”
Nellie Humphries denied the report written by the Salt Lake
Herald’s reporter and wrote to them; “To The editor of the Heralds. In your
issue of April 22d, you accused me with taking strychnine, and that it was
found in the jail. I wish to have you correct these statements by saying when
May Pettit took it, I thought she was fooling me, and, thinking it was flour, I
merely touched the end of my tongue to it, to see if I might be mistaken. It
had no effect on me, whatever. The poison was not found in the jail but was
brought there in a small vial by May Pettit and kept concealed in her clothing
until the 22nd.You will please publish the above and oblige. Nellie Humphries
City Jail April 23, 1888.
Again, in June 1889 Nellie Humphries was found guilty of
larceny and fined $90 and more than likely spent ninety days in jail.
The following year she was arrested along with S.B Kahler
and Henry Vass on a charge of vagrancy in March 1890, with Vass also arrested
for petit larceny. She was referred to as a “cocaine vag” and sentenced to
thirty days in jail.
Once released she was arrested along with John Affleck for
having “a holiday drunk and both were sentenced on 31 May 1890 to fifteen
days in jail. At the same time Sallie Davis and Zetta Hill were sentenced to
thirty days in jail.
On 24 July 1890, “Nell Humphries, the cocaine fiend was
sent to Bridewell for sixty days for vagrancy.” Bridewell was a euphemism for a
prison for petty offenders.
In September 1890, she was back in police court where she
was referred “as Nellie Humphrey, the belle of Plum Alley.” “In the
police court yesterday [September 10] Nellie Humphrey, the belle of Plum
Alley, was sent up for sixty days for vagrancy.”
“Nellie Bly Humphries, for sloshing around the streets with
nothin’ to do was given a sixty days’ job cleaning the city hall.”
“Nellie at it Again-Nellie Humphries and Sallie Davis, two
incorrigibles, who were recently sent up for fifty days each for drunkenness,
tired of their confinement last Sunday [September 20] and hied themselves off
to Plum Alley. They were recaptured yesterday [September 23] and Judge Laney
gave them thirty days additional for their little exploit.”
For six years the Salt Lake papers were devoid of news of
the antics of Nellie Humphries until August 1896 when she “entered the police
station last night [August 27] with fire in her eyes and two extremely red
cheeks. She complained that Jack Harris, a colored man, had slapped her face
twice. She will swear out a complaint against Harris this morning.”
Nothing more was reported on the incident however “Nell
Humphries was again in the toils yesterday [August 30] for getting wrapped up
in a superb jag. The judge fined her $15.”
An article from 1897 about the arrest of Jack Gannon,
“the Franklin Avenue Tamale vendor”, and his wife Mrs. Rena Gannon “his colored
wife”, mentioned the pair being arrested “in the house of Mrs. Humphries on
Twelfth East and Brigham Street [South Temple]. It is not certain whether this
was Nellie Humphries residence. The Gannons were charged with assault on a
Chinese man named Ling Young for keeping a “hop joint” who was stealing the
couple’s chickens.”
Whether this story involved Nellie Humphries is speculative
and she is no longer a newsworthy item after 1896 and disappears from history.
The “NOTORIOUS MRS. ELIZABETH CHARLES
In May 1885, a month before Mary Taylor’s divorce from
Charles Taylor was finalized, among those who appearing before Judge Adam
Speirs’ police court, were two sets of couples who were charged with being
intoxicated. They were arrested at Mrs. Taylor’s home, a residence for “lewd
women”. Those arrested were Frank Edginton and Mrs. [Jane] Souter both charged
with being “drunk and disorderly,” and S.H. Day and Mrs. Charles, who was
charged with being “drunk and profane.”
Both Jane Suter and Mrs. Charles appeared in newspaper
accounts connected with Fanny Payne over the next several years. Mrs. Charles
was always identified as such, with never her first name given. However, an
1888 arrest of an Elizabeth Charles [1840-1917] may have been the same as Mrs.
Charles. A woman by that name appeared in police court for being intoxicated.
“Elizabeth Charles was sent up for ten days for indulging too freely in her
favorite beverage-forty rod whiskey.” She was also referred to as Mrs.
Elizabeth Charles.
Mrs. Charles was in newspaper accounts of arrests for being
drunk as early as 1884. In February 1885 she was arrested along with Margaret
Wilson, “better known as “Mother Brandy”.
“Margaret Wilson, better known as “Mother Brandy” and Mrs.
Charles, well enough known in her own name, indulged in a mild tear on Thursday
[February 26 ] and being brought under Judge Speirs gaze, each fined $10.
Earlier, Margaret Wilson found herself in court before
Judge Adam Speirs with five others. “Four Indians, a negress, and an aged lady
named Mother Brandy, were before Judge Spiers yesterday [23 January 1885]; the
negress was charged with selling liquor to the Indians, but the case was not
made out and she was discharged.” No further information was provided on
why Margaret Wilson was arrested but possibly for being intoxicated. The woman
of color was possibly Fanny Payne.
In an article printed in the Salt Lake Herald regarding the
May 1885 arrest, it did not mention any of the men who were arrested at all.
Only Mrs. Suter and Mrs. Charles along with a “Mrs. Brandy”, which was an alias
for Margaret Wilson, were commented on by the reporter, presumably male.
“Mrs. Brandy was fined $15 for disporting herself in
an unwomanly manner, by being drunk, profaning, disturbing the peace and
appearing in the role of general vagrant on Sunday.”
“The notorious Mrs. Charles was up on the quadruple charge
of drunk, disturbing the peace, profanity, and vagrancy” and fined $10.”
“Mrs. Suter allowed her penchant for liquor to get
the best of her, and she indulged in a general breach of the peace by
profaning, and on Sunday was fined $10 by Judge Speirs.”
Mrs. Charles spent ten days in jail however when she was
let out, she reoffended immediately. “Mrs. Charles’ taste for intoxicants got
the better of her judgment again and the police magistrate sent her once more
to jail for five days.”
Margaret Wilson appeared in court again after she had been
released. “Before Justice Speirs this morning [5 June 1885], Mrs. Wilson was
found guilty of drunkenness, disturbing the peace and profanity, for which she
was punished by a fine of $15.”
At the end of June 1885, “Mrs. Charles made her
periodical appearance in the place that knows her so well and was assessed in
the sum of $5.” She actually was arrested with Stephan Labrun both
charged with being drunk and fined.
Mrs. Charles was featured regularly throughout 1885 as a
character in the Police Court reports for being arrested for intoxication. In
October, a newspaper covering the Police Court wrote “the slate showed that she
had been guilty of drunkenness, profanity, indecent exposure, lewd conduct, and
running away from jail.”
Another reporter described Mrs. Charles as being
“irrepressible” for having “played hooky from the Bastille on Sunday and was
found at the house of her head, Mrs. Taylor. She will be located again into the
broom brigade at the city jail, for drunkenness, profanity, lewd conduct, and
running away from the jail.”
In January 1887 Emily Passey and Mrs. Charles were arrested
for lewd conduct with a man named John Crocker and the three were sentenced to
100 days in jail and fined $90.
The following year in 1888, Mrs. Charles was convicted of
being a common drunk. She was sentenced to “sixty days imprisonment.”
A death certificate filed in 1918 for a 77-year-old woman
named Elizabeth Charles stated the cause of death was “cirrhoses of the liver”.
She was said to be a widow and died on Navajo street. Her death
certificate said she lived in Salt Lake City for 40 years [1878]. It is a
strong possibility this was the notorious Mrs. Charles. She was buried in
the Salt Lake City cemetery 8 October 1918 twenty-eight years after Mary Taylor
had died .
The NOTORIOUS JANE SUTER
In 1880 49 [1831] year old Jane Suter was unemployed and
rooming in a Chinese Laundry and boarding house with her 17-year-old son who as
resided on State Street near Plum Alley. Jane Sutter stated she was “widow”
born in Scotland. Her son Francis Suter stated he worked in a restaurant
perhaps along with Fred Passey. He said he was born in Nebraska [1863]
and both his parents were Scots. His death certificate stated that his father
was Frank J Suter. Living in the same rooming house was Emily Passey and her
husband Fred Passey.
The city directory listed Mrs. Jane Suter as a widow who
roomed at 266 West Third South which was on Mrs. Mary Taylor’s property.
During February 1887, Mrs. Jane Suter “one of the
demi-modes” living at Mary Taylor’s bordello was back in police court after
having an altercation with Fanny Payne
“Mrs. Suter, one of the occupants of the Taylor Mansion on
Third South Street, had made a complaint against Aunt Fanny Payne, of ebony
hue, whose suburban cottage is situated on the grounds of the Taylor
estate.” A reporter covering the police beat wrote of the appearance of
the women, “in the afternoon, the court room was redolent with a perfume that
reminded one of the back alleys of Commercial Street.”
Jane Suter had charged Fanny Payne with assault and battery
from an altercation they had over Payne trying to retrieve some dresses left in
the Taylor house by a prostitute named Mrs. Charles.
A “soiled dove” named Mrs. Charles who at the time was
“detained” in the city jail, had asked Fanny Payne to retrieve a “magnificent
wardrobe she had left behind her at the mansion.” When Fannie Payne “made
an effort to get the clothes” she was confronted by “Madame Suter” who objected
and would not her enter the residence.
There must have been a major dust up as that after “Aunt
Fannie left and retired to the cottage”, shortly afterwards, Mrs. Suter
“appeared and with a club broke four panes in the big bay window, that once
adorned her cottage, adding ‘Take that for your blind baby.”
Fanny Payne was raising a three-year-old baby, most likely
a product of one of the assignations of the girls who worked for her. Fanny was
51-year-old when the child was born so it is unlikely the baby was her natural
child.
This must have incensed Fanny Payne as she “went and took
the club away from her” and gave Jane Suter “several sharp raps over the
shoulders.”
During the police court hearing, “Alice Clark, another
colored belle” appeared as a witness, “who blushingly admitted that she had
once been convicted of lewdness” but protested “I guess it was, but I am not
guilty”.
An “old lady” named Ruth Laddies “who bears the peculiar
nickname of ‘Nid Nody’” was also called as a witness for Fanny Payne. When
Laddies took the stand “Aunt Fanny had carefully dusted the chair with her
apron, when Mrs. Suter vacated it.”
Ruth Laddies baffled the combine efforts of judge,
prosecuting attorney and a half dozen policemen to keep her quiet” after she
complained about being brought to court and “went on to tell that she
knew all about the case, and finally that she did not.” She said that
Jane Suter lived in the “big mansion, the same house in which she resided” but
Laddies “herself lived in a respectable part while Mrs. Suter lived in the
disreputable part in the rear.”
She lamented that “It was a shame and a disgrace that such
a person as Mrs. Suter should be allowed to live and breathe the same air as herself
and Aunt Fanny, and after she run down, she left the stand and nodded and
grinned again and again when the judge announced that the prosecution had
failed to make out a case and the colored dame would be discharged.”
The prosecuting attorney however then asked Jane Suter to
stand up and she was charged with “destroying the windows, the property of Mrs.
Taylor.” Suter “pleaded guilty and went up for ten days” in default of
payment.
In September 1887 “Mrs. Suter, one of the landmarks of Second
South Street, was arraigned on a charge of drunkenness, and entered a plea of
guilty yesterday [September 27]$10”
In May 1888 she, “an old offender” was fined $10 for being
a plain drunk. This was the last mention of Jane Suter.
Her son Frank Suter [1863-1928] mostly avoided being in the
newspapers. He married in 1885 and the 1888 City Directory listed him as living
at 263 West Third South working as a cook. This was the residence of Fanny
Payne.
Frank Suter was arrested in 1893 “on a warrant charging him
with malicious destruction of property,” but afterwards the charges were
dismissed. In 1894 he was a member of the Democratic Workingmen
Club.
In 1897, Frank Suter’s first wife whom he married in
December 1885, filed for divorce from him. She alleged that “for more than five
years” Suter had “willfully neglected to provide for her with the common
necessaries of life, not withstanding that he is in constant receipt of a
salary of $75 a month.”
She also accused him that “at various times beat and abuse
her and struck her on one occasion with such a force as to break her finger.
She further avers that defendant came home drunk on June 20, 1896, struck her,
and threatened to kill her; and that further cohabitation with him would
endanger her life.” The divorce was granted but he later remarried and
moved to Ogden where he died in 1928.
JOHN CROCKER [1831-1899]
The Dissolute Former Mining Magnate
John Crocker was
so well known in Salt Lake City he was referred to as “Old Crocker” and
“Uncle John Crocker”. After his arrest for lewdness with Mrs. Charles, in
April 1887, Crocker was released from jail on the condition that he leave town.
However as soon as he was released, he went on a “bender”, became drunk again,
and was returned to jail to serve out the remainder of his 110 days.
John Crocker was considered an “aged offender”, a habitual
alcoholic, and had been arrested several times for vagrancy and petty theft. He
was described by one reporter as “an old man, unwashed, unkempt, and unshaven a
sight pitiable and revolting.” When he was sixty years of age it was said he
“looks all of 75, wandering around town with an old cane on the Wasatch Corner
or the sunny side of Second South.”
Crocker was also described as “a miner from way back, a man
of decided intelligence, now bent and shaky from wear and tear and hard usage.
He says he was one of the original locators of the Eureka Mine and came out of
Little Cottonwood with $400,000.”
He had many friends, one who wrote of him, “I have known
him to draw a thousand dollars in the morning and be absent all day.” When he
was asked, “Well, where have you been John?”, he just replied “Oh just hunting
up the families of some of my poor friends.” His old acquaintance recalled that
Crocker “would come back without a cent. His generosity knew no bounds. He
would divide his last dollar today, not knowing where to obtain another. Well
poor John has lost his “nip” and is looked upon generally as a vagabond on the
face of the earth, but it does not signify that he should go down to the grave
“unwept, unhonored and unsung”.
Crocker tried several attempts at sobriety trying to find
cures his alcoholism. In 1889 he tried Dr. J. M. Benedict’s experiment of using
a substance called “Dr. Brown Sequards’s elixir of life.” He had printed
his testimony of how it made him feel twenty years younger however he would
return to drinking.
John Crocker took the cure again in 1892 at the Keeley
Institute located in the Gardo House which had been the residence of John Taylor,
the President of the Mormon Church. The Keeley Institute “offered a
"scientific" treatment for alcoholism, something that until then was
treated by various "miraculous" cures and other types of quackery.
The Keeley Cure became popular nationally “with hundreds of thousands
eventually receiving it.”
The Keeley institute promoted Crocker’s involvement in
their “curing” his alcoholism and took out advertisements using him as an
example of their successes. “Uncle John Crocker who was a miner of note in the early
days, and who has lost about everything for drink, is being born again at the
Gardo House. Three weeks ago, Uncle John was wont to put in the greater part of
his time back of the saloons tipping up beer kegs and sampling the contents and
his wardrobe would have shocked beyond measure even the obtuse sensibilities of
a New York goat. But now he is clothes and in his right mind and in less than
two weeks more will have become an enemy and stranger to John Barleycorn. The
old man has spruced up wonderfully and looks like another person.”
The cure did not last for John Crocker as that in 1895 he
was arrested from the “effects of a large jag of juice.” He would die in
1899 while in the county infirmary and buried in a pauper grave.
Chapter Ten
City Blocks 63 and 64
Directly to the east of
the Denver & Rio Grande Freight Yards, were Blocks 63 and 64. Second South
Street divided the two Blocks, consisting of ten square acres each. The Rio
Grande Depot significantly increased the value of land in the two Blocks as
noted by an article found in The Deseret News. In March 1883, the paper
commented “the Block east of the Denver & Rio Grande Western depot is being
built up with astonishing rapidity. Stores and boarding Houses are being
erected like magic.”
The Denver & Rio
Grande railway’s decision to locate their train yard and depot adjacent to
Block 63 brought in hundreds to the area to work and created a need to
accommodate travelers. The Salt Lake Herald Republican mentioned in September
1883 the change commenting, “There is an appearance of business around the
Denver & Rio Grande Depot which indicates the fact that the town is being
developed in that portion.”
The sudden growth of the
area could not provide enough accommodation for all the workers as that
many laborers were living in tents. An article also from September 1883 stated,
“A tent down by the Denver & Rio Grande depot was the scene of a robbery on
Saturday evening, for committing which a man named Phelps was arrested on
suspicion. The parties who laid information which led to the arrest of Phelps
had not turned up last evening to prosecute the fellow, which leads to the
belief that probably a compromise has been affected by a partner of Phelps. The
property taken was $20 in money, two watches, and a 45-caliber revolver.”
Eventually Block 63
would be eventually hemmed in by the Rio Grande Railway tracks on the west and
running down Fourth [Fifth] West were the tracks for the Nevada and Utah
Railway whose passenger depot was in Block 65 adjacent to Block 64 situated on
the corner of First South and Fourth [Fifth] West. People whose businesses and
residences within Blocks 63 and 64 had to cross busy railroad tracks traveling
east or west. City Block 64 was bounded on the north by First South Street and
Second South on the south side. It was also located between Fourth [Fifth] and
Fifth [Sixth] West.
The actual location of
residents and businesses on the Block is hard to be precise as that newspaper
accounts and Directories for Salt Lake City in the 1880’s rarely used street
addresses in the area becoming known as the Denver & Rio Grande District
which was loosely defined as to include the ten acres of the Old Fort now
Pioneer Park to Eighth West between South Temple and Fourth [Fifth] South.
This area was also approximately the boundary of the Fifteenth Ward.
The term “at the corner
of Second South Street and Fifth [Sixth] West Street” was the most common
expression for any location along Second South near the Denver & Rio Grande
Depot. Thus, unless some other reference was given it is not clear whether the
locations mentioned were in Block 63 or 64. However by the 1890’s the City
Directory did start to include many street addresses.
During the 1880’s,
actually more businesses and residents were located on Fifth [Sixth] West and
Fourth [Fifth] West, between First South and Third South, rather than on Second
South. The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showed only four residences on
Second South and no business while there were two hotels, two saloons, three shops,
a restaurant, and a billiard parlor along Fifth [Sixth] West. Directly
opposite of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Passenger Depot was the Rio
Grande Hotel complex and the Sullivan Hotel was located closer to Third
South.
Three directories for Salt
Lake City still exist from the 1880’s, 1883, 1884 and 1888 and all but 1895
exist for the 1890’s. These are helpful identifying the businesses for Blocks
63 and 64 and some of their known residents. The 1880 federal census is helpful
but not entirely accurate while the 1890 federal census was destroyed. Salt
Lake City newspaper reports and advertisement from the period supply much of
the details of life in the Rio Grande Western District. One article in
particular from 1895, detailed the “Oquirrh Club”, a Republican County
committee, compilation of a list of men who were canvassed in the Fifteen Ward
Second Precinct many of whom lived in the two Blocks. The men’s names and
addresses were published in the newspaper with the disclaimer, “These
Names are not on the Registration Books for 1895. There are probably others
whom the canvassers have overlooked so it is not positive that your name is registered
if it’s not on the List. Every Republican should call personally at 166 South
State Street and see for himself that he’s property enrolled.” However,
this list gave a fairly accurate account of the male residents of voting age
who lived with the two city Blocks.
Salt Lake City Block 63
Block 63 like all Salt
Lake City’s original Blocks, consists of 10 acres, containing eight lots
of one and a quarter acre. Each of length of the Block’s four sides is
660 feet or 40 rods. A rod equals 16.5 feet and was the common measurement used
in legal descriptions of property.
Lot One, of every Salt
Lake City Block was located on the southeast corner of the Block. In Block 63
this was at the intersection of Third South and Fourth [Fifth] [Fifth West].
Lots were allocated in a clockwise manner with the next lot of similar size
being lot two and so forth. Lot Two had 330 feet fronting Third
South to Fifth [Sixth] West, then north to lots, 3, 4 and 5 which ran
east from the corner of Second South 330 feet. Continuing east towards
Fourth [Fifth] West was Lot Six which turned south 165 feet to lots 7 and 8, then
back south to Lot One.
The 1889 Sanford Fire
Insurance Map for Block 63 is a detailed drawing of the structures located
there at the time. The map was concerned with which building were wooden framed
or constructed with brick or adobe. The distance between structures was also
measured for insurance purposes. Not all buildings were given addresses, but
all were identified as residential dwellings, hotels, saloons, and restaurants
and whether they were one or two stories in height. In 1889 no structure on the
Block was more than two stories tall.
Salt Lake City Block 64
City Block 64 was also
one of Salt Lake City’s original blocks situated west of downtown. It consisted
of 10 acres divided into eight lots. Each lot contained one and a quarter acre
or 10 rods [165 feet] by 20 rods [330 feet]. The block was bounded on the north
by First South and on the South by Second South. Originally the east and west
boundaries were named Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth West which have subsequently
been changed to Fifth West and Sixth West.
Block 64 consisted of
four lot fronting Second South 165 feet wide and 330 feet in length and
four lots of the same dimension fronting First South.
Most notably Block 64
was historically the location of the city’s sanctioned Red-Light District in
the early Twentieth Century. However, in the Nineteenth Century, it was still
home to Mormon families, railroad boarding houses, saloons, and small shops,
although one “house of Ill-fame” was mentioned as being near the corner of
Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West in the 1890s.
Chapter Eleven
Lot One Block 63 Plat A
Lot One consisted of 10
rods [165 feet] northward on Fourth [Fifth] West and 20 rods [330 feet
westward] on Third South. The Salt Lake City Mayoral deeds, to legitimize
claims to parcels within the Original Great Salt Lake Survey, had Lot One
divided into a western and eastern half of five rods and 10 rods each. In 1873,
Edward Hunter received title to the western half of Lot One when in 1878 Daniel
Greenig his title to the eastern half.
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map shows that Lot One appears to have been divided into four parcels
each of 5 rods in width by 10 rods in length. The parcel nearest to the corner
of Fourth [Fifth] West and Third South contained three residences listed as 262
South and 268 South on Fourth [Fifth] West, and 506 West facing Third
South.
Edward Hunter
[1793-1883] in February 1865 bought from Brigham Young, as “Trustee of the
Church”, a portion of Lot One for $100. Hunter, at the time, was the Presiding
Bishop of the Mormon Church. It doesn’t appear that Hunter ever lived on this
property as he resided in the Thirteenth Ward.
When Hunter died his
probate administrators divided interest in the western half of Lot One to two
of his married daughters in 1884. Laura Cook [1853-1934], wife of Winfield S.
Cook, inherited the eastern half of the West half of Lot One. Her
half-sister Amelia [Nellie] Latimer [1859-1930], wife of William Latimer,
owned the western half of the west half of Lot One.
Laura Hunter Cook and
her husband Winfield sold to Henry Rudy their interest in Lot One for $1550.
The 50 square rods property was 5 rods from the Southwest corner and north 10
rods. Rudy would later sell the property in 1903 to Delbert A Buck for $2500.
The Latimer family had moved to California by 1900 but held on to their
property until the Twentieth Century
DANIEL GREENIG
Daniel Greenig on the
other had resided on the eastern half of the property, that he had purchased in
1856, until the late 1870’s when he moved from the area. Greenig was a Mormon
convert who immigrated to Utah in 1852 and was a baker by trade. He
operated a bakery, a grocery, and a rooming house located in downtown Salt
Lake. He was also said to have raised Cashmere Goats on Lot One in Block
63.
Greenig became quite
wealthy. The 1870 federal census showed that he was worth $12,000 in assets.
The 1880 federal census listed him as household 181, in the Thirteenth Ward
living on First South Street. His occupation was listed then as “private
boarding” and his place of residence was on the south side of First South
“between First and Second East.” An advertisement placed in 1880, stated that
Greenig’s “Private Boarding House, second house east of City Hall, neatly
furnished and fitted up-Table Supplied With the Very Best. A Home to its
Patrons. Terms moderate. Daniel Greenig Prop.”
By 1884 Daniel Greenig
had moved to Third South “opposite the Methodist Church” where he
operated another boarding house. He placed an announcement regarding his new
accommodations, “where he will be pleased to accommodate his old friends and
new ones too with board and lodging.”
Greenig’s health
declined and in 1885 he asked that his “back licenses as hotel keeper might be
remitted, naming as a reason, the stringency of the times, his being in a
crippled condition, and other causes.” The city council adopted his
request.
An advertisement in 1887
mentioned him stating, “For Thirty-Five Years in business in Salt Lake City,
flatters himself that he has a just claim for a lions’ share of public
patronage” in his various enterprises.”
The 1888 city
directory listed “ Daniel Greenig” as a retail and wholesale grocer with his
shop at 74 West First South and his residence at 343 East Third South. The
listing was placed before he died in 1888 at his residence of general
disability.
In 1878 Daniel Greenig
sold his property in Lot One to John William Jenkins for $2700. Jenkins had a
prosperous harness and saddle making business and the family kept an interest
in this corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and Third South into the earl Twentieth
Century.
Street Addresses for Lot
One Block 63 Plat A
262 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
The 262 South home was a
small one-story wooden frame structure. No information has been found for any
its residents in the Nineteenth Century. The 1900 federal census however listed
a 39-year-old Swedish barber, Samuel Bjorlund, at this address. Bjorlund and
his wife four children and mother-in-law all lived at this address.
268 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
This structure was a
much larger two-story adobe brick dwelling with a front wooden porch. It was
the primary residence of John William Jenkins [1821-1888] and his family.
John William Jenkins
John William Jenkins was
a Mormon immigrant who came to Salt Lake City with the Moses Thurston Company
in 1855. The 1879 city directory listed him as a “harness maker” residing on
Fourth [Fifth] West between Second and Third South.
The 1880 federal census
listed the Jenkins’ family as the 248th household in the
Fifteenth Ward. He had a wife and nine children ranging in ages from 21 to 6.
His occupation in the census was given as harness maker, as were two of his
grown sons. The Jenkins operated their harness and saddle shop at a “76 to 89
East Second Street” address as “J. W. Jenkins and Sons.”
There are no newspaper
accounts where the members of this family ever had any trouble with the law.
Jenkins did place an advertisement in 1883 for the recovery of a stolen horse.
“From the Fifteenth ward, a bay horse branded with a star on left thigh, white
star on in forehead , stolen.”
In 1887 John W Jenkins
Sr. was called to take an “Oath Test” to serve on a grand jury. Oath Tests were
given regarding perspective jurists’ opinion on polygamy and the recently
passed “Edmunds–Tucker Act”. The anti-polygamy legislation was passed by
Congress in response to the dispute between the United States Congress
and the LDS Church regarding plural marriage.
A court reporter
noted that Jenkins “could not answer whether he believed it right for a
man to practice plural marriage” as he “considered the Law of God above the law
of the land and would obey the former and take the consequences.” He
admitted that he “thought if God commanded plural marriage, he would obey the
law of God every time.” When asked about the Edmunds-Tucker Act
specifically, he answered that “he did not understand the recent law, because
he had not read it.”
Nevertheless, Jenkins
stated that he “did not think he could decide what he would do because he did
not consider it,” meaning taking a plural wife. He answered that he “knew that
polygamy was a law of God, but he would not violate the law of the land”
and “under the circumstances he would obey the law of the land because
his belief was overpowered, ” by the newly enacted law.
Jenkins admitted
however, “I think it wrong to practice plural marriage under the present
circumstances”, still he also stated that he “would obey the law of God
when it was not in conflict with the law of the land.” He then took an
oath, to obey the law, saying that “he understood he would not commit bigamy or
unlawful cohabitation or advise others to do so.”
In June 1888, John
W Jenkins and his neighbor to the north of him, Henry Rudy, along with
“many other persons residing in the vicinity of Fourth [Fifth] West
Street” were upset by the increasing amount of railroad tracks being installed
along Fourth [Fifth] West. The residents “protested against the Salt Lake
and Fort Douglas Railway being granted a right of way along that street as the
said road already has connection with the Utah Central and the existence of
another railroad on that street would increase the risk to life and decrease
the value of property in that vicinity.”
The city must not have
listened to the residents, as a narrow gage track spur was installed for the
Utah and Nevada Railroad yards at Fourth [Fifth] west and First South.
John W. Jenkins died
suddenly a few months later in September 1888 of “apoplexy” an old fashion term
for having a stroke. His obituary stated, “J W Jenkins an old resident of Salt
Lake and one of the earliest and best-known harness makers in the country.
He conducted the harness and saddler business ever since he located
here. He was widely known throughout the territory and possessed many excellent
and sterling qualities.”
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance maps shows that John W Jenkins’ property was on the southeast corner
of Fourth [Fifth] West and Third South where the family remained. In 1893 the
marriage of a daughter of the “late J W Jenkins and wife Eliza” took
place this residence where the “ceremony was witnessed by about sixty
guests.”
The widow of John W.
Jenkins remained in the family home in which she died in 1900. The federal
census for that year listed Stewart Jenkins as head of the household of his
siblings. Three of John W Jenkins’ sons were listed in the 1900 City
Directory for Salt Lake City as still residing at the address of 268 South Fourth
[Fifth] West; all working at the Saddle and Harness Making business. Only
one son still remained on the property in 1905.
506 West Third
South
The 506 West Third South
structure was the smallest of all three dwellings located in the first parcel
of Lot One. It was a one story, 12-foot-wide adobe cabin in according to the
1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map but by 1898 the same map showed a small
wooden addition to the dwelling. The habitat was at the corner of Fourth
[Fifth] West and Third South and was 33 feet from the Jenkins home. The address
of this residence was listed as 504 West and 506 West Third South at various
time. The 1889 Sanford Fire Insurance Map listed the address as 506 West.
However, the 1895 city directory listed the Ashby family at 504 West
which may have just been simply an error.
William R Ashby
In 1895, 19-year-old
William R Ashby, a “Clerk for Walker Bros and Fyler Co” was listed as
boarding with Gertrude Ashby at this address. He and Gertrude were the children
of an English immigrant named Thomas Ashby [1851-1905] and Gertrude later
married Edwin Silas Jenkins the son of John W Jenkins the harness maker.
The 1880 federal census
Thomas Ashby as living in Ogden working as a “shoemaker.” Newspaper accounts
stated he and his wife divorced in 1893 after which the family moved from
Ogden to Salt Lake City.
The Ashby family did not
remain on Third South very long and moved in 1896 to 257 South Fourth [Fifth]
West and later to 255 South Fourth [Fifth] West by 1898, where William R
Ashby was still boarding with Gertrude Ashby, and siblings Samuel Ashby, and
Thomas L Ashby. Samuel was a clerk for Charles Baer and Thomas was a
helper Rio Grande Western Railroad.
In 1900 Thomas Ashby Sr.
was living at 255 South Fourth [Fifth] West from where in 1901 his
daughter “Gertrude Jenkins” had her father committed to the Utah State
hospital, stating she “believed Thomas Ashby her father was insane and a fit
subject for the asylum.”
It was reported that
business reverses, domestic problems, and epilepsy had contributed to his
insanity. “The old man has been worrying over business matters for about 9
years and the death of his wife which occurred some 15 years ago until his mind
has become unbalanced. The danger of permitting him to live longer with his
family is that he wanders away from home and is liable to meet with accident
around the railroad yards.” Ashby would later die in the state mental
hospital in Provo from a prolong epileptic seizure. Thomas Ashby’s obituary
stated that he “was a pioneer shoe manufacturer of Ogden, where he and his wife
had settled from England.”
After the Ashby family
had moved away from 504 West Third South, the Norwegian family of Carl M
and Gustava Hansen lived at this address in 1898. The 1890 directory listed
Hansen as being a grocer at 79 East Third South. In 1896 a newspaper account
reported how the Utah Central Railway company went to court to prevent Carl
Hansen from building a fence in too close a proximity of the railroad track. In
1898, the Hansen’s 8-year-old son, Arnt, died of typhoid fever and the
family moved away.
Also living at this
residence was Martin Amundson and his wife in 1897. He was the brother-in-law
to Carl Hansen. The 1898 city directory also listed Martin Amundson at this
address as well as the 1900 federal census. Amundson is listed as 36-year-old
teamster living at this address. He was also Norwegian, and he and his wife
were a childless couple. However, a 14-year-old niece Gertrude Hanson was
living with them. He became a motorman for the Salt Lake Light and Railway
Trolley company and moved away from this address in 1905.
514 West Third
South
The second parcel,
fronting Third South, contained the most structures featured in the 1889 and
1898 Sanborn fire Insurance maps. There were three attached wooden, one-story
homes listed as 514 West, 516 West, and 518 West. The 5 rods by 5 rods
north half of the parcel contained several wooden buildings, most likely a
two-story barn, several sheds, and outhouses. The 1898 map stated the area had
a corral listed as 518 ½ West.
Sylvanus B Smetzer
In 1891 an advertisement
listed a “Five room Cottage for Sale or rent” at 514 West Third South”
The 1892 city directory showed Sylvanus B Smetzer [1849-1924] a native of Ohio,
living at this address while he was a Rio Grande Western railroad car
repairman; He had moved to Salt Lake in 1890.
While residing at
“No. 514 West Third South” in 1892, he “reported that during his absence from
home yesterday noon his house was entered by burglars and a ladies gold
watch and chained valued at $60, a garnet pin valued at $60 a necklace and set
of bracelets valued at $40 and three rings valued at $40 were stolen . The case
appears to be another of the many daylight robberies that are being committed
in the city.” By 1896 he had moved to 357 South Fourth [Fifth] West.
Smetzer was at this address in 1895 according to voting registrars for the
Fifteenth Ward.
Thomas Lamplough
Thomas Lamplough,
[1873-1931] the son in law of James Hegney, resided at this address according
to the 1900 Federal Census. His wife was Dora Tyner Lamplough, and his
occupation was that of an engineer for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. He
only stayed at this address a couple of years before moving to 811 West Third
South.
516 West Third
South
George R Seeley
In 1891 George R. Seeley
of “No. 516 West Third South Street” reported his house was robbed.
Edward Carlton was charged with “housebreaking” and appeared before the police
court. The complaint alleged that on Dec 10 the defendant broke into the
residence of G. R. Seeley and stole a pair of pants an overcoat, a half dozen
silver knives and forks and the same number of silver spoons.” A bond of
$500 was set for Carlton.
George R Seeley was a
machinist for the Rio Grande Western Railroad and in 1894 moved to Chicago.
Herbert J Smith
In 1895 a Herbert J
Smith was listed at this address as an engineer for the Rio Grande Western
Railway but had moved to 527 West Third south by 1896.
James E J Murray
A man named James E J
Murray lived at this address in 1896 who was a conductor for the railway. The
1900 federal census listed this James Murray as a 38-year-old railroad yard
master at this address.
In an advertisement was
placed in 1900 “By a young man of 18, as stenographer and typewriter, reference
given, address J H A 516 West Third South.”
518 West Third South
No information and not
listed in the 1900 federal census.
526 West Third
South
The third parcel, also
of 5 rods [85 feet 6 inches] by 10 [165 feet] rods, contained a one-story
structure of both wood frame and adobe, according to the 1889 and 1898 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Maps. The home was about 22 feet by 20 feet and its address was
given as 526 West Third South.
John A Truelson
The family of John A
Truelson a Swedish immigrant lived at this address as early as 1888. By 1892 he
moved to No. 4 Denver Court. In 1900 he would have moved to 511 West First
South in Block 64. He was listed as a laborer. See 511 West First South
Peter Christensen
Pete Christensen was
registered at this address in 1895 as a laborer. He moved away by 1896 but once
lived at this small, detached adobe and wooden frame residence.
John Franklin Cory
John Franklin Cory
[1856-1945] and his wife lived at this address in 1898. He was a railroad night
watchman for the Rio Grande Railway yards. He was elected peace officer of
Eldorado, Kansas in 1875 and served in this capacity 20 years. During this
time, he helped in the organization of the Kansas national guard. In 1895 he
came to Salt Lake City, where he was employed by Denver & Rio Grande
Western railroad for eight years. He moved to Castlegate, Carbon County, in
1903 and was an employee of the Utah Fuel Co. until he retired in 1929.
534 West Third
South
This Fourth [Fifth]
parcel of Lot One was divided into three sections of about 28 feet six inches
or one and quarter rod containing three structures and land that was 10 rods
[165 feet] in length. This structures on the Fourth [Fifth] parcel of Lot One
contained three one story dwellings, two of which were built with fired bricks
and one out of adobe brick. There were only 4 and 5 feet between these
homes.
The house at 534 West
was slightly larger than the house at 538 but they were built with many
similarities. The adobe home at 540 was much smaller and behind it,
in the northwest corner was a one-story wooden shack with the address of 540 ½
West Third South. The fact that it had an address may have meant it was a
type of residence, not many how small it was.
The Mountain Ice and
Cold Storage-
As that this parcel was
165 feet deep and 82.5 feet wide, it was probably the location of the
Mountain Ice and Storage Company office that was established after the 1889
Sanborn Map was recorded. The address was 534 West Third South.
The Mountain Ice and
Cold Storage main facility was on Third [Fourth [Fifth]] West and Ninth South.
The company was founded in 1891 when it stated “The object of the company will
be to do a general storage business of meats and other commodities, manufacture
and sell at wholesale and retail ice, as well as handle the natural
product. Principal shareholders were William and Josephine Mesick. John
Heil Jr. was named president. They had a machine for the “manufacturing
of artificial ice turning out forty to fifty tons a day.” For a
period, they had the “exclusive control o the ice market.”
Teams and wagons
delivered ice throughout the city and a livery may have been kept at this
address as several advertisements were placed for the sale of teams of horses
from this location. In 1895 they had a building permit to erect a frame
icehouse on Fourth [Fifth] South and Fifth [Sixth] West at the cost of
$150.
The offices later moved
by 1897 to 345 South Fourth [Fifth] [Fifth Street] and then by 1899 they
relocated to 537 West Second South where they were advertised as Mountain Ice
Company “White Wagons” with W. H. Sweet as President.
Ann Cronin
After the Ice Company had vacated the dwelling, the Salt
Lake City directory listed Ann Cronin widow of John D Cronin as residing at
this address 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.
536 West Third South
Samuel H. Willard
“Engineer”
In 1890 Samuel H Willard
resided at this address and worked as an engineer for the Rio Grande Western
Railroad. He moved to 538 West in 1892 and 540 West Third South by 1894.
Ann Cronin
Widow of John D. Cronin
The 1900 federal census
listed 68-year-old Ann Cronin, the widow of John D Cronin, as the head of a
household that included her son Thomas F. Cronin’s family and her son in law
Budd Matthews’ family. She was still living there in 1902 but her son had moved
out. Ann Cronin died in 1912 at the age of 82. Her son Thomas
Cronin was the proprietor of the Oasis Saloon.
John A Truelson
In 1903 John A
Truelson’s funeral was held at this address. In 1904 Orson Truelson [1880-1945]
of 536 west Third south said his home was entered by burglars and about $50
worth of clothing taken from a trunk that had been stored there. Truelson was
the son of a Swedish immigrant named John A Truelson who in the 1900 federal
census was listed as living at 511 West First South in Block 64 of the
Fifteenth Ward.
Orson Truelson eloped in
1900 and it seemed to have been a scandal as it was recorded in several Salt
Lake City newspapers. He was listed as among the missing during the April 1906
San Francisco earthquake but seemed to have survived and returned to Salt
Lake. See 511 West First South
538 West Third South
George Chapin Ladd
“Locomotive Engineer”
George Chapin Ladd
[1860-1946] lived at this address with his family in 1896. Ladd was a
locomotive engineer for the Rio Grande and Western Railway and was involved in
an accident while an engineer of a train that killed an 11-year-old boy
who was riding a pony on the way to school. The frighten pony ran in
front of the approaching engine and threw the boy in front of the train. By
1900 the family had moved away.
Charles Butler “Boiler
Maker”
The 1900 federal census listed the family of Charles
Butler at this address. He was a 27-year-old boiler maker who had moved
recently to Utah from New Mexico. He was a native of Iowa.
540 West Third South
Samuel H. Willard
The 1894 city directory both listed Samuel H Willard and
John W. Reynolds, fireman, residing at this address. Samuel Willard was in
partnership with Jim Hegney at the West Side Drug Store.
John Reynolds “Train
Fireman”
John Reynolds, a Fireman
for the Rio Grande Western Railway lived at this address in 1894 according to a
newspaper report when he was accosted on the way home from work. A newspaper
article reported on the incident writing, “Has an exciting Experience- He is
Fired at By Three Men, But Escapes with Two Bullet Holes in his Hat- John
Reynolds, a fireman who resides at 540 West Third South had an exciting
experience with hold-ups late last night. He had nearly reached his home when
three men sprang at him and ordered him to throw up his hands. The men were
armed, but Reynolds had considerable money and decided to take chances and
ran.
All three of the
hold-ups fired at him, two of the bullets going through Reynolds’s hat. He
dodged into a yard near his own house and the desperadoes skipped. The affair
was reported at the police headquarters and Officer Larsen found the facts to
be as stated above.” Reynolds moved away from Salt Lake City as he was no
longer listed in the city directories.
George Langdon “Trolley
Motorman”
In 1895 George Langdon,
a motorman for the Salt Lake Trolley, was residing at 540 West Third
South. He was a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman and had been a
locomotive engineer. Five years earlier in 1890 he had been severely
burned about the face in Butte, Montana as a trolley motorman for the
Metropolitan Street Electric railway having come “in contact with a live wire.”
He was in Utah by 1893 when he worked for the Mountain Ice and Cold
Storage Company and was living at 324 West Seventh South,
While operating a
trolley in 1895 “going east on Fourth [Fifth] South at a very slow rate
of speed about two miles an hour in order to kill time” Langdon was involved in
an accident that killed an old lady. “When nearing Third East he observed a
meat wagon going south and observed an old lady standing near the tracks
who stepped directly out in front of the moving car. She was taken to the
hospital where she passed away.” At an inquiry of the accident “no blame was
attached to the motorman”,
However, he must
have quit or been fired as the 1896 city directory listed him as laborer and in
1897, he was residing at 441 South Third [Fourth [Fifth]] West. Langdon
is not listed in the 1898 directory however he may have gone to Alaska as part
of the Klondike Gold Rush as Salt Lake papers carried articles about a
George Langdon being among the gold seekers.
George Jewett “railroad car inspector”
The 1900 federal census
listed George Jewett’s family at this address. Jewett was a 43-year-old
railroad car inspector. He was a native of Illinois had just recently married a
Swedish wife.
Chapter Twelve
Lot Two Block 63 Plat A
Lot Two consisted of 330
feet along on Third South to the corner of Fifth [Sixth] West and then
northward 165 feet along Fifth [Sixth] West. Mormon Pioneer Isaac Duffin
acquired the lot from the original pioneer owner, Homer Duncan, who then sold
all of the lot to Edmund Butterworth in July 1863 for $500. Between Lot One and
Two there was a 21-foot-wide easement and 10 [185] rods in length, into the
interior of Block 63.
Edmund Butterworth
[1826-1903] owned the entire lot until his death when it was divided among his
heirs. He developed the property and leased the land to several businesses
including the Salt Lake Meat Company and The Sullivan House Hotel. He
also developed a small subdivision of homes on a street named Denver Court.
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance map showed that the lot was kept in one large parcel but contained
six structures including the Sullivan House Hotel located in the northwest
corner of the lot facing Fifth [Sixth] West. The wooden two-story Sullivan
House Hotel contained a saloon, a front office, dining rooms, and a kitchen on
the first level.
Within the lower half of
Lot Two, fronting Third West, were two, one story brick duplexes, separated
from each other by about a rod. The addresses of first duplex’ were 544 West
and 546 West. The Second duplex’ addresses were 550 West and 552
West Third South.
Nineteen feet to west of
these duplexes was a one-story adobe home, with a one-story wooden structure
separated from it by 5 feet. The address of the adobe house was 556 West on
Third South. Behind the Adobe building was a smaller structure that was given
the address of 556 ½ West Third South. The Easement for Denver Court eliminated
the adobe house at 556 West.
Twelve feet further west
was another brick duplex similar in size and shape as the first two however no
street addresses were listed for it. In 1898 the complex had the addresses of
564 West and 566 West. The adobe house at 556 West and the frame
structure to the west of it had been torn down by 1898 and another brick duplex
was built similar to the one at 564 West and 566 West. The addresses for this
duplex was 558 and 560 West.
The 1898 Sanborn Map
showed that Lot Two was one of the most developed of the original eight lots as
it contained the entrance to a housing development on Denver Court, located on
both Lots Two and Three, the Sullivan Boarding House, and the Salt Lake
Meat Company complex.
Edmund Butterworth
Mormon Pioneer
Edmund Butterworth
[1826-1903]was a native of England who emigrated in 1854 to Utah
Territory and purchased Lot Two in July 1863 from Homer Duffin. He was an adobe
maker by trade and operated adobe brickyard and later opened a grocery store.
He was said to have resided on the “northeast corner” of Third South and Fourth
[Fifth] West. The 1880 federal census listed his household as number 223 of the
Fifteenth Ward living on Fourth [Fifth] West and a grocer by
occupation.
After 1880, Edmund
Butterworth moved his main residence away from Block 63 to 312 South Third
West. This move placed his home outside the boundaries of the Fifteen Ward and
was situated where the new Rio Grande Depot would be built in 1910 across from
Pioneer Park to the west.
The 1884 Utah Gazetteer
City directory listed “Edward” Butterworth, “adobe manufacturer” as residing at
312 South Third West. His wife “Mrs. Alice Butterworth, however, was
operating a “general Store’ at 302 South Fourth [Fifth] Street just
outside of Block 63 while their son, Robert Fielding Butterworth, was working
as a “clerk” residing at 429 West Third south. Another son, John F.
Butterworth, was a carpenter residing at 556 West Third South just east of the
Rio Grande Freight yards within Block 63. This residence would be demolished to
make an entrance to Denver Court.
The 1898 city directory
did not list an occupation for Edmund Butterworth but his wife, still
operated a general store at 302 South Fourth [Fifth] West. She resided at
312 South Third West with her husband. Robert Fielding Butterworth listed
as a clerk worked in his mother’s store and resided a 429 West Third South.
Another son, Edwin Butterworth was listed as a student attending the LDS College.
Shortly before he died
in 1903, Edmund Butterworth deeded to his sons, Robert F Butterworth and Edmund
Butterworth, sections of Lot Two. Robert Butterworth was given “part of
Lot Two Block 63 Block A” for one dollar. He had married a daughter of George
Washington Boyd, a longtime pioneer resident of Second South in Block 64. His
son Edmund Butterworth was deeded “49 ½ feet by 14 rods [231 feet]
northwest of 7 rods [115.5 feet] north from southeast corner of Lot Two Block
63 plat A .
The newspapers printed
an obituary for Edmund Butterworth stating: “Pioneer of City Dies Edmund
Butterworth for forty-nine years a resident of Salt Lake died yesterday at the
age of 77 years. The deceased was a native of England and came here in 1854.
Frugal and industrious man and in the early days made the adobe for the humble
homes of many people of this city.” “Remains may be viewed at the family
residence 312 South Third West Street
Street Addresses for Lot
Two Block 63 Plat A
544 West Third
South
Charles James Priday
“Stone Cutter”
In 1894 Charles James
Priday’s family was listed in the Salt Lake City directory at this duplex
residence where he had just recently moved from Sixth East. He and his family
had immigrated in 1882 from England and his occupation was listed as a
stonecutter. The family would later move to 466 West Third South.
Andrew Joseph Cronin
“Clerk”
After the Priday family moved away from 544 West Second
South, Andrew Joseph Cronin [1871-1939] moved his family into this residence
for a short while. The 1897 city directory listed Andrew J Cronin as a clerk
for the Rio Grande Western Railway, his brother George Cronin, a “trackman” for
the Rio Grande Western Railway, his brother John D Cronin, an engineer, and
their mother “Hannah" widow of John D Cronin all residing at this address.
Arthur William Chiverall
“Painter”
The family of Arthur
William Chiverall [1848-1917], a painter for the Oregon Short Line Railroad
lived at the address in 1898 having moved from 550 West Third South in 1897.
The 1900 federal census enumerate the family of Arthur Chiverall. He immigrated
to the United States in 1864 and came to Utah from Michigan. He had been an
officer in the Utah lodge No. 1 of Independent Order of Odd Fellows for years
serving as “grand noble” and treasurer.
546 West Third South
Duplex
Andrew Joseph Cronin
“clerk”
Andrew “Andy “Joseph
Cronin [1871-1939] was a first generation American of Irish decent was a Clerk
for the Rio Grande and Western Railway and lived at this duplex until moving to
544 West Third South in 1897 and later by 1900 to 6 Carter Terrace in Block
64.
William Robertson “train
Engineer”
The 1900 federal census
listed a 29-year-old Canadian named William Robertson at this address. He was
just recently married and was employed as an engineer.
550 West Third
South
Elwood S Masters
“carpenter”
In 1892 the Iowa family
of Elwood S Masters [1856-1912], a carpenter, lived at this duplex. His
wife of 10 years Elizabeth “Lizzie” Alice Masters, ‘nee Kinney, in 1892
advertised for “two apprentice Girls to Learn Dressmaking”. They lived at this
address for two years before moving away in 1894.
A. L. Snook
In 1895 a man named “ A.
L. Snook” was listed at this address in the Republican canvassing list of
the district. Nothing more is known of him, and he is not listed in the
city directory.
Mrs. George Duwell
A newspaper
article from 1899 stated that “Mrs. George Duwell of 550 West Third South
Street entertained a few friends was a pleasant evening playing cards.”
The Duwells were also not listed in the city directory.
Edward T. Stewart “advertisement
solicitor”
This family had moved
when the 1900 federal census enumerated a 30-year-old Edward T. Stewart and his
recent Myrtle wife living at this address. He was a native of Wisconsin and was
an advertisement solicitor for the F C Stevens Advertising Agency . By 1901,
Stewart had changed agencies and moved from Third South, eventually leaving
Utah for Ohio.
552 West Third
South
Oscar Doble “Railroad
Conductor”
The 1900 federal census
enumerated the large family of Oscar Doble [1858-1929] living at this duplex
that he had just moved to. He was a 39-year-old native of Minnesota and
employed as a railroad conductor. His wife was Welsh, and they had eight
children born between 1886 and 1899. The family appears to have moved to Utah
by 1886 then back to Minnesota and finally back to Utah in 1891. His large
family moved from this address by 1901.
The Salt Lake Tribune in
1900 printed a disclaimer “Oscar Dobie, the Rio Grande western watchman is not
the man recently before the police court who gave his name as Oscar Doble. The
latter was a dark man, while Doble is a pronounced blonde.”
Denver Court North from
Between 552 and 558 West Third South
Denver Court was a 42
feet wide street running northward from Third South between 552 West and 558
West. Edmund Butterworth created the subdivision on his property when the old
dwelling at 556 West was demolished to create the street into the interior of
Lots Two and Three that he both owned. It was sometimes referred to as
Butterworth Court.
In 1889 Edmund
Butterworth was reported to have been “completing a new court called Denver
Court opening north into Third South between Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth [Sixth]
west. There are in the court ten houses costing $899 each and eight house
fronting on Third South costing $1800 each. Everyone is either occupied or
spoken for.” The eight houses fronting Third South were actually the four
duplexes, and the ten court homes were within the interior of Block 63.
The homes in the Denver Court subdivision were built over the course of several
years.
In January 1890 building
permits for sites “No. 1 and 3 Denver Street” were issued to build “two brick
houses of five rooms $1,900.” Interestingly the newspaper complained of a
housing shortage at the time and for the need for more housing in Salt Lake. In
1892 Edmund Butterworth applied for another permit to build “two brick cottages
on Denver Court at the cost $1800.” In July 1892 it was reported that
Butterworth had built three brick homes at the coast of $850 each.
The homes on Denver
Court were mostly rental units for men employed by the railway and their
families. Renters moving in and out frequently and very little information is
known of the occupants of the ten court homes.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance map showed that the ten one story brick homes were built facing each
other with the odd numbered homes on the east side of the street behind the
duplexes 544 West through 552 West on Third South Street. The even numbered
were on the west side of the street between the duplexes from 558 West to
566 West on Third Street.
Only homes 1 and 2 were
located in Lot Two the remaining eight were part of Lot Three. These Denver
Court homes were in the northeast section of Lot Two and eastern half of Lot
Three. South. Each house was situated twelve feet from each other, and
the subdivision was encircled by what were called a “private drive” that
was more like an alley right-a-way. Outhouses were located behind each
home.
No. 1 Denver Court
Heber Lorenzo Jones “Railroad
Fireman”
In 1900 the federal
census enumerated 29-year-old Heber Lorenzo Jones’s family at this address.
Heber Jones [1871-1938] was a native of Utah and a railroad fireman by
occupation. He moved away from this address in 1902.
A newspaper
article from 1893 mentioned Jones being involved in a serious accident. “Heber
Jones, a fireman on the Rio Grande Western, last night [30 November 1893] met
with an accident , which will , more than likely result in the amputation
of his right foot, or at least the loss of his toes.
The young man has been
helping in the Rio Grande Western yards about 9 o’clock was aiding in getting
No. 152 ready for the road. The engine was to be run down to the coal chute,
and Jones had turned the switch and was getting back into the cab when his
right foot slipped and rested upon the rail. The engine was backing down
slowly, but one wheel passed over Jones’ foot, crushing it in a terrible manner
as back as the instep. Jones was at once removed to St. Mary’s Hospital, where
he received the best of surgical care. While it is little early to say with
certainty, it is more likely that the foot will have to come off.”
“Jones is unmarried but
has a mother in the city. He is cousin to Judge George Pyper and has been
connected with the Rio Grande Western for three Years.”
Heber Lorenzo Jones’s
obituary stated, “From a job as roundhouse worker for the Denver & Rio
Grande Western railroad in 1891, Mr. Jones advanced, landing in the cab of a
locomotive as engineer on the same line in 1897. Last September [1937] he
retire after 46 years and three months of service.”
No. 2 Denver Court
An advertisement in 1897
read “Thee Nicely furnished rooms for housekeeping $8 House No 2 Denver Court
between 2nd and 3rd South and Fourth
[Fifth] and fifth West. Also, another that stated, “Young men or Teachers
can find first-class room and board at $4 per week No 2 Denver Court between
Second and Third South Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth [Sixth] West half Block from Rio
Grande Western depot.”
The next year, in 1898,
an Auction Sale by “W. D Cline, auctioneer” was held of various
furnishing at this address. Items up for sale were “two oak bedroom sets,
spring mattress, down comforts, pillows, bed lounge, chairs, rockers, ingrain,
Brussels and velvet carpets, Gold Coin heating stove, cook stove, kitchen and
laundry furniture, canned fruits, preserves etc.”
James Leatham “Builder”
The 1900 federal census
enumerated the family of 31-year-old James Leatham [1867-1921] at this address.
He was a native of Utah of Scottish parentage and a “builder” by
occupation. His family consisted of a wife and a daughter both named
Agnes. The family had two boarders within the household, 27-year-old a railroad
brakeman named George Myers and 68-year-old blacksmith named David Keasler.
No. 3 Denver Court
Ernest Wright
“Machinist”
The 1900 federal census
enumerated 26-year-old Ernest Wright [1874-1952] and his wife Margaret
Butterworth Wright residing at this address. He was the son in law of Edmund
Butterworth and Alice Fielding Butterworth. He worked as a machinist according
to the census.
Wright’s obituary stated
that he married in 1896 and in the same year, he was “one of the first Mormon
missionaries to the Samoan Islands which he later served as president of that
mission from 1915 to 1918. For 45 years until his death, he had been a Salt
Lake real estate assessor.” He was also had been a bishop in the
Sixth-Seventh Ward. He died of a heart ailment while on a fishing trip to
Driggs, Idaho.
No. 4 Denver Court
John A Truelson “Train
Car Cleaner”
The 1892 city directory
listed John A Truelson as living at this address as a car cleaner for the Rio
Grande Western Railway. The 1893 city directory called this address “No 4
Butterworth Court.” He had moved away by 1894 when the city directory gave his
address as residing e s [east side] Grand 2 s Second South.” See 511 West First
South
John Warthman
“Carpenter”
The 1896 City
directory listed John Warthman [1863-1950] as a carpenter for the Rio Grande
Western Railway residing at this address. The 1900 federal census also listed
36-year-old John Warthman born in Iowa of German parentage. Included in his household
was his wife Matilda and son Leroy who was born in Colorado. They were members
of the First Baptist Church. They had moved away at least by 1904. In 1925
Leroy Warthman was an East High School Coach. John M Warthman’s obituary stated
he had been employed in Salt Lake City about 25 years with the Utah Light and
Traction Company. He had resided in Florida the past three years [1947-1950].
No. 5 Denver Court
Edgar James Stowe “train
Conductor”
In 1896 Edgar James
Stowe [Stow] [1862-1944] was a conductor for the Rio Grande and Western Railway
at this address. Stowe moved to Ogden in 1897 until 1913 when he returned
to Salt Lake City. At the time of his wife’s death in 1928 he was said to have
been “one of the oldest conductors on the Denver & Rio Grande Western
line. He died in 1944 and his obituary said he entered the employ of the
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Company in 1891 which he served for 45
years until he retired in 1936 as a conductor.
William S. Stewart
“Train Engineer”
By 1897 the family of
William S. Steward lived at this address where he and his wife Lillian held a
funeral for their 13-month-old infant. Stewart worked as an engineer for the
Rio Grande Western railroad. The family had move to Utah by 1890 from Iowa.
The 1900 federal census
listed Steward as a 35-year-old Locomotive engineer and a native of Iowa. His
wife and he had six children, born between 1886 and 1900. She was the
mother of 8 children two having died before 1900. The family is not listed at
this address after 1903.
By 1915 the family had
moved to Ogden where “Lillian B. Stewart” commenced divorce proceedings
against William S. Stewart , alleging failure to provide as grounds for the
action. The plaintiff asks for the care and custody of three minor children,
costs of the suit and attorney fees, and $40 a month alimony.
No. 6 Denver Court
Charles Henry McCready
“Carpenter”
Charles Henry McCready
[1849-1937] was a carpenter for the Rio Grande Western Railway when he
lived at this address in 1897. His son Dana Charles McCready boarded at the
same address, and he was an Express Driver for the Rio Grande Western Railway.
By 1900 Charles was working as a conductor and he and his son Dana
lived at 258 South Fourth [Fifth] West household 136. Charles H
McCready was a resident of Salt Lake City for 45 years.
Dana McCready was
described as “the popular young record clerk in the Rio Grande Western” and was
mentioned often in the society section of newspapers as attending parties in
Salt Lake City. After his marriage he “accepted a very good position with
the H.J. Heinz Pickle Company in Salt Lake but later moved to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,
and New York City.
Volta Sobrita Ayres
“Machinist”
The 1900 federal census
listed the family of Volta Sobrita Ayres [1866-1946] at this address. He was a
Canadian of English parentage and employed as a machinist. They moved to Utah
from Montana about 1896. The 1904 city directory listed him still at this
address employed as machinist for the Oregon Short Line Railroad. He moved from
this address in 1905.
No. 7 Denver Court
William M Brune “political
canvassers”
In 1895 William M Brune
was mentioned as residing at this address by political canvassers but he had
moved to Denver, Colorado by 1896. The 1894 listed him as a carpenter for the
Rio Grande Western Railway and living at No. 7 “Butterworth Court”.
Ira Blanchard “Train
Engineer”
The 1898 and 1899 city
directory listed the family of Ira Blanchard at this address having moved out
of No. 8 He was an engineer for the Rio Grande Western Railway.
In March 1900 Ira
Blanchard’s wife Mary Alice Evans Blanchard, his son Clarence Blanchard
[1898-1975] and sister-in-law were all quarantine for smallpox. Ira
Blanchard was also found to have the disease and was taken to the
“smallpox hospital with a well-developed case.” The family moved away from
Denver Count before June 1900. In 1904 they were living at 434 West Third South
where their son Clarence has a case of the measles. See no. 8 Denver Court
Henry H. Maggard
“Station engineer”
The 1900 federal census
listed the family of 35-year-old Henry H. Maggard [1864-1946] at this address.
He was a native of Missouri and a station engineer by occupation. He and his
wife had three children and had recently moved from Kansas as a child was born
there in 1899. This family left Utah in 1901 and returned to Missouri.
No. 8 Denver Court
Ira Blanchard “Train
Fireman”
In 1897, 32-year-old Ira
Blanchard, who was married in 1896, was living at this location. He was listed
in the city directory as a fireman employed by the Rio Grande Western Railroad.
He moved across the courtyard to 7 Denver Court in 1897 as it was a bigger a
four-room house. See No. 7 Denver Court
Richard B. Moore
“Brakeman”
By 1898 the family of
Richard B Moore, a 35-year-old Brakeman for the Rio Grande Western lived here
but had moved down the Block by 1899 where he shared a duplex with the family
of Harry Newcomer, a Rio Grande Western, engineer.
Richard Moore was
injured in 1896 while working as a brakeman “at the Rio Grande Western depot at
Provo.” Moore, “a brakeman on the local freight train between P.V Junction and
Salt Lake City, met with a serious accident. He was getting off of the cow
catcher when his left foot was caught between it and a tie, the limb being
crushed just above the ankle. The injured man was brought to Salt Lake City on
a special and taken to St. Mark’s hospital where three pieces of shattered bone
were removed. The physicians hope to save his limb.”
In 1897 Richard Moore
was listed as living at 543 West Third South across the street from Harry
Newcomer, but no occupation was listed.
Moore was in the
newspapers again in 1899 when he had an altercation with an engineer
named Harry Newcomer when they lived at a duplex at 558 and 560 West Third
South.
The 1900 federal census
had him and his wife living back at No. 8 Denver Court with his wife and her
two young sisters. Moore was born in Nebraska of Irish parentages but his wife
and his 11- and 12-year-old sisters in law were all born in Utah. He had moved
away from Denver Court by 1901.
Moore however must have
recovered enough to return to work as a brakeman as that in 1905 he averted a
collision between a runaway Bingham ore car and a Rio Grande Western passenger
train. Moore, seeing the danger, jumped from the train and switch a track line
barely avoiding a more serious collision. The ore car only glanced off
the Rio Grande Western train, however the impact did seriously injure five
passengers. See 560 West Third South Duplex and Chapter Seven Forgotten People.
No. 9 Denver Court-
August Hazeur “Porter”
August Hazeur
lived at this address in 1896 and 1897. He was a “porter” for Druehl, and
Franken Druggists located on corner of Main and Third South. He moved
away by 1898.
Charles F. Showaker “Locomotive
fireman”
By 1900 the family of
Charles F Showaker [1872-1923] lived at this address. He was a
27-year-old Locomotive fireman for the Rio Grande Western Railway, and a native
from Minnesota however his Danish wife and his two children were born in Utah.
The family moved away in 1903.
Fred Breining “city
water department worker”
Fred Breining
[1860-1933] and his wife Sadie Firman Breining lived in this home when in 1897
when his 25-year-old wife died. He worked for the city water
department.
John W. Hardesty “locomotive
engineer”
The 1900 federal census
enumerated the family of John W. Hardesty [1862-1946] at this address. He
was a 36-year-old native of Missouri and locomotive engineer for the Rio Grande
Western Railroad. His two children were born in Kansas. The family moved away in
1902.
556 West Third South
John Fielding
Butterworth “agent of the Park City Ice Company
In 1884 John Fielding
Butterworth [1852-1926], a son of Edmund, was listed as a carpenter residing at
556 West Third South just “below the Rio Grande Freight yards” within Block 63.
By 1893 he had moved away to 466 West Third South. He was partners with his
brother Robert F Butterworth as agents of the “Park City Ice Company” which
operated out of their mother’s grocery store at 302 South Third [Fourth
[Fifth]] West. This address was abandoned when the homes were demolished to
make an easement for Denver Court.
558 West Third
South
Harry Newcomer “Engineer”
At this address was the
family of Harry Newcomer [1853-1933], an engineer for the Rio Grande Western Railway.
The duplex at 558 West and 560 West Third South Street was also occupied by the
family of the Rio Grande Western brakeman, Richard B. Moore, in 1899 when
Newcomer and Moore appeared in police court. See Chapter Seven Forgotten People
560 West Third South
Duplex
Richard B. Moore
“carpenter”
Richard Moore lived in
this part of the Duplex in 1899, however the 1900 federal census had
46-year-old Patrick Minogue’s family at this address. He was from Indiana
but of Irish parentage. He was a carpenter by trade however by 1910 he
moved to Denver, Colorado. See No. 8 Denver Court. See Chapter Seven
Forgotten People
564 West Third South
Duplex
Mrs. Mary Fitz
“widow”
This dwelling was eleven
feet from the first duplex. In 1898 a Lineman named George W. Silkett was
killed instantaneously when he came in contact with a live wire while engaged
in laying a branch wire for the Western Union to Park City along the Rio Grande
Western track. He was a 29-year-old single man residing with his sister Mrs.
Mary Fitz who lived at 564 West Third South. “The blow is very severe upon Mrs.
Fritz especially since she lost her husband Edward Fitz by a very similar
accident two years accident.”
James Silkett “Coal
Company Foreman”
Mary Fitz’s brother
James Silkett was listed in the 1898 city directory as living at this
address.
The 1900 federal census
listed 38-year-old Mary Fritz and her 40-year-old brother James W. Silkett at
this address. They were natives of Iowa and had a 32-year-old machinist
named Robert Aiken lodging with them. The 1902 city directory showed James
Silkett ‘boarding” at this address but did not list Mary Fitz.
The 1905 city directory
listed James Silkett as living at No. 5 Denver Court employed as a foreman for
the Sharp Coal Company.
In 1906 a newspaper
article mentioned the death of James Silkett. “After being dead at least two
days, the body of James Silkett, aged about 58 years, and a resident of this
city for the past six years, was found yesterday afternoon [17 October] about 2
o’clock lying in his room in the lodging house at 358 West First South Street.
The discovery was made by Glendora Wiseman, the daughter of Frank H, Wiseman,
who maintains the rooming house.
The police were
summoned, and the body removed to the morgue, where it was determined that
death had resulted from natural causes.
Silkett was a miner, but
for some time past was employed in a hide house in this city. He was recently
discharged but on Wednesday last told his rooming house that he had got a job
at the racetrack. He was not seen after that, but as he cared for his own room,
nothing was thought of his absence, other than that he had gone to work.
The most mortem
examination showed that the probable cause of death was miner’s consumption.
The decease has a sister living in Steele City, Neb., and another sister at Los
Angeles.”
566 West Third South
Duplex
Harry Newcomer
“Engineer”
The 1892 through 1895
city directories stated that engineer Harry Newcomer “roomed” at “566 West”
address before moving to 558 West. See 558 West Third South
The only mention of this
address in newspapers from this period was when a 16-year-old boy whose family
lived near Sixth South, and Seven East played a prank on boys he had a grudge
against either at this address or near it in 1897.
“Walter Wickel
will be arraigned this morning for impersonating a police officer of the city
and causing thereby no end of excitement in the neighborhood of 566 West Third
South Street. Wickel is a stout young fellow of 16 years of age and speaks with
very gruff tones. He found an old military coat which was decorated with brass
buttons. Attired in this and a slouch hat, he started out to own that part of
the city for a while at least. He awoke a number of boys from their beds, reciting
fictitious charges to them and then and there marched them off, to the distress
of their parents. When he had gotten enough of one subject, he would have his
laugh and allow the victim to realize the joke before returning to his
home.
Everything would have
gone smoothly for Wickel if the humor of the situation had not been too
lasting. He kept it up just long enough to get arrested himself. All of his
victims will appear in court this morning and the laugh will probably not be on
Wickel’s side.” Wickel was fined $15 fine for his impersonating a police
officer.”
John Dugan “Faro Cards
Deal”
The 1900 Federal census
listed the family of 35-year-old John Dugan at this address. He was a native of
England but of Irish parentage. His wife Millie and two children were
natives of Utah. His occupation was a “faro dealer”. Faro was a card game
often just as popular as poker “due to its fast action, easy-to-learn rules,
and better odds than most games of chance.” Faro was popular during the 1800s
but was “eventually overtaken by poker as the preferred card game of gamblers
in the early 1900s.”
The census listed John
and Millie Dugan as married but had actually divorced by 1897. An article by
the Salt Lake Herald reported “The case against John Dugan for unprovoked
assault upon his divorced wife on Sunday [24 Jan] evening will probably be
dismissed in the police court this morning owing to the peculiar condition
which would make the confinement of the man a hardship for the woman.
Dugan was arraigned
yesterday morning, but the hearing was continued until today to allow her to
withdraw the charge now pending. Well tanked with liquor, Dugan visited the
home of his former domestic partner and abused her. By the action of the upper
courts Mrs. Dugan has the custody of two children, the result of her union with
the man who hammered her on the Sabbath. She pleads for his release on the
premises that if he is punished, she will suffer by non-support, alimony having
been part of the court’s decree.”
The Salt Lake Tribune
reported, “John Dugan appeared before Judge Wenger yesterday to answer for an
assault, alleged to have been committed upon his divorced wife Sunday evening.
Dugan had been paying his wife alimony for some time past, and Sunday night he
went to the woman’s home ostensibly for that purpose. A dispute arose, in the
course of which Dugan struck his wife. When the case came up for a hearing in
the police court Mrs. Dugan refused to prosecute and the matter was adjusted by
the defendant’s paying the cost of the case, amounting to $5.75. An agreement
was made whereby it was arranged that Dugan shall pay the alimony into the
hands of Mrs. Dugan’s attorney W.T Gunter. By this arrangement it will be
unnecessary for Dugan to visit his ex-wife’s home.”
Later in the year John
Dugan was again in the Police Court, “John Dugan, who was in the police court
recently on a charge of cruelly beating his child, is again in trouble. A
warrant for his arrest was yesterday [15 November] issued by Justice Stewart ,
on the complaint of Mrs. Millie Dugan, the divorced wife of the defendant, who
charges him with threatening to kill her.”
“The trial of John Dugan
on the charge of threatening to kill his divorced wife, Millie Dugan , which
was set for yesterday before Justice Stewart, was indefinitely postponed on
account of the absence of the complaining witness, Mrs. Dugan. The case was
called in the morning and a motion to quash the complaint was overruled
but on account of the absence of Mrs. Duan no further proceedings were
had.”
In 1900 John Dugan
“accused of running a gaming house, was up late the night before [17 Feb] and
did not get around in time to claim the $50 he had left for his
appearance.
He was gone by
1902 and Millie Haight Dugan remarried in 1903.
279 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
Salt Lake Meat Company
For nearly 10 years or
more the southwest corner of Block 63 at the corner of Third South and Fifth
[Sixth] West contained the Salt Lake Meat Market and slaughterhouse. An
advertisement for the Salt Lake Meat Company was placed in the 1890 City
Directory which stated. “A. Roland, W.T. Sampson, Salt Lake Meat Co,
Wholesale Dealers In Dressed Beef, Pork, Mutton and Veal, Hams, Bacon and Lard.
Fine Sausage a Specialty- Cor. Third South and Fifth [Sixth] West Salt Lake
City Telephone 451 P.P. Box 756” . An article of businesses being
constructed in October 1890 listed “Roland and Sampson Cold Storage for
$25,000.
275 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
In 1890 Edmund
Butterworth leased the southwest corner of Lot Two consisting of approximately
six rods by six rods nearly 1000 square feet to August Roland for $18,300 with
a monthly rent of $50. August Roland [1858-1929] was a business partner with
William Thomas Sampson [1848-1937] until 1892
William Thomas Sampson
“Meat Shop Owner”
Roland’s partner William
Thomas Sampson immigrated to the United States in 1867 from England and settled
first in Colorado. In 1875 Sampson declared his intentions of becoming a United
States citizen while living in the community of Silver Plume, Clear Creek
County, Colorado a “small mining camp of a few hundred inhabitants”,
where he worked in a butcher shop. He was residing in Silver Plume when
the 1880 federal census was taken.
267 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
Amos Meat Market
The 1894 city directory
listed the Amos Meat Market at 267 South Fifth [Sixth] West although Amos
resided at 264 South Seventh [Eight] West. Robert Amos [1865-1941] was the
brother of Gilbert D Amos [1850-1901] and was a Scottish immigrant who came to
Utah in 1890. His obituary stated that he was a “former butcher” and “lived in
Salt Lake City for 40 years before moving to Los Angeles California where he
died although he was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Not much is known about
Robert Amos as compared to his more noted brother. Gilbert D Amos. In 1893
Robert was admitted to the Caledonian Club, a Scottish fraternal organization
of businessmen. and Family residence was 542 West South Street Family
residence was 542 West South Street
The 1895 city directory
did not list his business at this address and by 1896 he had moved to
Ninth North and Twelfth West a portion of his brother’s subdivision development
where he operated a dairy.
His brother Gilbert D
Amos came to Utah ten years before he did and opened the “People’s Meat
Market opposite Mayor Jennings’s residence”. It was reported “through his
enterprise and good treatment of his patrons has succeeded in working up a new
business in the stand where so many have failed. Call and see him if you want
the choices fresh meat at lowest prices.” Gilbert was mentioned in 1887
in a advertisement which claimed, “A revelation among butchers. Beef, mutton,
and pork for cash only. Porterhouse and tenderloin steaks 12 ½ cent per pound;
prime roast 12 ½ cents per pound, round steak 9 cents per pound, chick steak 8
cents per pound, boiling beef 6 cents per pound, loin, and legs of mutton
8 cents per pound, chops 8 cents per pound, breast, and necks of mutton 5 cents
per pound, pork chops 8 cents per pound pork roast and sausage 8 cents per
pound. OM all the above a special reduction for cash only with delivery.”
Gilbert Amos became
successful and acquired 62 acres “bounded on the west and northwest by
the Jordan River stands on a high ridge high and dry near Ninth North
Street”. The area was near today’s Rose Park Golf Course.
However, he died a pauper “forgotten by friends and
family” and was a “county charge. “Death of G.D Amos Succumbed to
Bright’s Disease at the County Infirmary. Gilbert D Amos, the once wealthy
butcher, who for several days past has been in a dying condition at the
poorhouse, passed to the great beyond yesterday morning. Death resulted from
Bright’s Disease.”
“ Mr. Amos who in health
was very portly and it was his boast that he was the only man in the country
who could take his collar off over his head without unfastening it, but at the
time of his death he was almost a skeleton.”
“ Amos was a resident of
this city for twenty years or more and leaves a wife, two sons and a brother in
this city. The deceased was about 60 years of age. As yet no arrangements for
the funeral have been made.”
“Opened a meat market on
the corner now occupied by Drueho and Franken’s drug store put all the money he
made into real-estate. His first large investments were in north Salt
Lake, and it was Amos who secured the copper plant for this city by
putting up $100,000 bonus for that ill-fated enterprise . He mortgaged some of his
property for that purpose.
“Afterwards he built
Amos terrace, and some other large investments were marked up to his credit. He
was reputed to be worth no less than $250,000 part of it being left him by rich
relatives in Scotland.”
Some years ago, the capitalist
took to drink, and his fortune diminished rapidly. Last year he was in St.
Mark’s hospital for several months suffering with rheumatism and a complication
of other troubles. His money had given out before this, and he was removed from
the hospital finally to the infirmary where his life is ebbing away as swiftly
as did his fortune.”
“ The doctors stated
last night that he could hardly live forty-eight hours. Amos has two sons in
this city with whom he has not lived for years.”
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map listed this address as part of the Salt Lake Meat Company
building and no one was enumerated as residing in the building in the 1900
federal census.
263 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
The Sullivan House
The Sullivan House hotel
occupied this location for a decade during the 1890’s. In 1889 Edmund
Butterworth leased a parcel of land to John C Sullivan [1835-1920] for $7500,
at $15 a month. In 1890 the lease was renewed for 25 years although the
Sullivan House Hotel did not last that long.
Mrs. Olivia Knox and
Mrs. Rachel Woodward “land ladies”
The 1900 federal census
listed 42-year-old Olivia Knox as the “housekeeper of the Boarding House at 263
South Fifth [Sixth] West. She stated she was married for 18 years without any
children and a native of Maryland. The landlady was Mrs. Rachel L Woodward
Tenants in 1900
There are fourteen
individuals 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-old single woman. No occupation given but she was of German
parentages.
The only family residing
at the hotel 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 nonnative Utahns. Occupations were given
as day laborers, a stock tender, a carpenter, a machinist, an attorney at law,
a railroad laborer, a boilermaker, and a stable boss.
257 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
The Sullivan Saloon
Patrick J Sullivan
[1851-1898] was a ‘saloon keeper’” at 257 South Fifth [Sixth] West in 1890 with
his residence being the same an advertisement from that year listed
“Cheap -One box Mattress 1 good cook stove, 5 lunch counter chars Call at 257
South 5th West.”
A news report from 1891
stated “a man with a badly scratched hand showed up at police headquarters late
last night stating a man had bit him in Sullivan’s saloon of Fifth [Sixth] west
street, where upon he reciprocated the delicate attention by ripping the
sawdust out of him.” A tribune reporter went to investigate and “made the
rounds of the Fifth street saloons but the neighborhood was as quiet as a
Quaker Meeting and had been so everyone said.”
This 257 South location
was gone according to the 1898 Sanborn Map as there is not a building or
address for this spot.
Chapter Thirteen
Lot Three Block 63 Plat A
In 1862 Isaac Duffin
sold all of Lot Three to Edmund Butterworth for $500, who now owned all
interest in the two and half acres within Lots Three and Two. Lot three was 165
feet wide, fronting on Fifth [Sixth] West and 330 feet deep into the interior,
bounded by Lot Eight on the east side.
The property only began
to be developed after the Denver & Rio Grande Depot and Rail Yards were
built and soon became very valuable. During the 1880s and 1890’s, Fifth [Sixth]
West was far more developed than Second South, which would not really take off
until the Twentieth Century.
According to the
1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map there were eight businesses, contained in five
buildings, located on Lot Three. By 1898 only two buildings, containing three
shops and a dwelling, still fronted Fifth West. However, the eastern half of
the lot contained eight of the ten houses belonging on Denver Court.
The first business to
lease land from Edmund Butterworth was that of Mormon pioneer named Samuel G
Read. He leased a small lot for $10 a month in 1882. It was four rods, or 66
feet located on the southwest corner of Lot Three.
The following year,
Abijah Riley leased the northwest corner of lot Three, containing 6 rods by 4
rods. Riley turned around and assigned his lease to polygamist Edward
Friel for $1650 in January 1884. Friel in turned did a Quit Claim Deed to his
estranged plural wife Hannah Friel.
In May 1883 Edmund
Butterworth leased a parcel of 82.5 feet by 330 feet to a man named Charles
Pearce, a tin smith, on which to operate his business for $10 a month. Pearce
in May 1884 in turn leased to Fred Barnes north half of Lot Four
“Mr. Charles Pearce,
tinsmith of this city, who formerly resided in Ogden, wished the public to
distinctly understand that he is not the Charles Pearce who has figured so
prominently in the police records of late, and that the vagrant does not belong
to his family.”
In 1886 C.
[Charles] D Edgington [1857-1893] was arraigned upon a charge of battery upon
on Charles Pearce. It appears that some time ago Edgington cleaned an outhouse
for Pearce and ever since them whenever Pearce met him while under the
influence of liquor, he would insult and abuse him. Edgington claimed that he
stood it as long as he could, and finally “hit him one for luck.” He said
he would not have done so but the abuse became unbearable. The Judge beamed
kindly upon him, gave some advice as the proper course to be pursued under such
circumstances and imposed a fine of $7.50.”
Clara E Snell [1840-1910], the daughter of
Samuel Read, leased the property where her father’s shop was in 1888 from
Edmund Butterworth. In June 1892, Clara Snell had a four-room frame house
built for $500 on the property.
In 1890 businessmen
Joseph K Johnston and Frank F. Raymond leased from Butterworth for $4500, the
west 6 rods formerly leased by Mrs. Friel to build a saloon.
Street Addresses for Lot
Three Block 63 Plat A
259 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a one-story wooden dwelling located twenty feet north of
the Sullivan House which was demolished by 1898 according to the Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map.
257 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
A few feet north of the
dwelling was another one-story wooden house in 1889 which was also demolished
by 1898.
This may have been the
same address as 255 South that was occupied by a Grocer named Benjamin Smith
from 1892 to 1893. This business is gone by 1894 and a man named Benjamin Smith
was listed as a laborer at 253 South Fifth West.
253 South Fifth [Sixth]
west
The 1889 and 1898
Sanborn Fire Insurance maps listed this site containing a one-story wooden
structure of three rooms with a restaurant in the front facing Fifth [Sixth]
West. Behind it was an adobe filled room and kitchen behind it. It had
been 15 feet north of the dwelling at 257 South. This place was called the
Liday Boarding House and Railroad Men’s Café.
ANN JOHNSON LIDAY
Ann Johnson Liday
[1857-1925] was a native of Minnesota and a businesswoman who had married
Samuel Liday and had two sons, John A Liday [1876-1966] and Ralph Liday
[1886-1891].
Mrs. Hattie Harely “Restaurant
Owner”
The 1896 city directory listed a Mrs. Hattie Harely as
operating a restaurant at this address. Nothing is known of this woman, and she
is not listed at the address in 1897.
Raffael
Marine
However,
the 1900 federal census showed an Italian emigrant, Raphael [Raffael] Marine,
[1833-1909], his 53-year-old wife Lucia, and their two sons Patrick
Marine age 22 and Michael Marine aged 19 years old living at this Address.
Raphael Marine was also known as Ralph and the 1900 census listed him as 60
years old when he would have been closer to 67. They were all Italian
immigrants as were railroad laborers. Raphael and Lucia immigrated in 1888
however their sons did emigrate until 1891. Another son Eugene Henry Marine
[1872-1939] was a shoemaker by trade.
249 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
The London News Depot
and Bookstore
The building at this
address abutted on the north side of the Liday Restaurant and was south of the
Keenan’s Denver House. The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showed it was a
one-story wooden structure consisting of three shops that fronted Fifth [Sixth]
West, with two small rooms in behind it. The 1898 map showed the structure was
slightly enlarged in the back and the property line in the rear reached a
“Private Drive” that encircled the Denver Court subdivision.
The building contained a
business called the London News Depot and Bookstore owned by Samuel George Read
[1807-1893] who was referred to as “the well-known news dealer.”
241 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
In January 1883 Edmund
Butterworth leased to a man named Abijah Riley a parcel at this address for $20
a month. The following year Riley transferred the lease to polygamist
Edward Friel [1822-1905] for $1,650. The description of the parcel stated it
was from the northwest corner of Lot Three, east 6 rods [99 feet] south 4
rods [66 feet] back to the beginning. This property at 241 South Fifth [Sixth]
West consisted of two one story wooden houses.
Hannah Sharp Friel
Edward Friel later
transferred the lease to his estranged wife Hannah Sharp Friel [1823-1913] who
was divorcing him. Hannah Friel had been a schoolteacher at the Brigham Young
Academy teaching spelling to “primary” students in 1881. She filed for divorced
from her polygamist husband in April 1884. At the time of the suit for divorce
both Edward and Hannah Friel were residents of Springville, Utah and he
had deserted her for one of his other wives. Hannah Friel accused him of
“neglecting to provide for her”, having “intemperate habits” with alcohol and
having treated her with “habitual cruelty as well as that “he is a bigamist or
polygamist”.
Chapter Fourteen
Lot Four Block 63 Plat A
Lot Four of Block 63
also consisted of one and a Fourth [Fifth] acre of 200 square rods or 54,450
square feet. It fronted Fifth [Sixth] West with 165 feet and ran
330 feet into the interior, bounded by Lot Seven on the east and Lots Five and
Three on the north and south.
Christopher Merkley
“farmer”
This lot was not
assigned when Block 63 was originally settled in the 1850’s, according to deeds
in the Salt Lake County Recorder’s office. It was not until Christopher Merkley
claimed the lot in October 1872 that the lot was mentioned in county deed
records. However, it was not until 1879 that Merkley’s title to the property
was granted as a “mayoral deed” from Daniel H. Wells, then mayor of Salt
Lake.
Christopher Merkley
[1808-1893] did not live on the property, so how he acquired an interest in it
is unknown. The 1860 federal census showed that Merkley lived in the 17th
Ward of Salt Lake City and was a farmer.
As that the Denver &
Rio Grande Railway had bought forty acres opposite Block 63, Lot Four,
Merkley’s property, being directly across from where the passenger depot was to
be built, had immediately increased in value. In May 1881Christopher Merkley in
a warranty deed sold to Philip Job Hall the south half of the lot for $300. The
property contained five rods by ten rods.
Less than a year later,
Christopher Merkley sold the north half of Lot Four to a man named John Ream in
April 1882. John Ream paid $1000 for the warranty deed for a parcel also
containing 5 rods by 10 rods.
Christopher Merkley had
only paid only $4.10 to have the mayoral deed filed in 1879, and by 1882 he had
made $1300 from dividing the property into two parcels.
The South Half of Lot
Four 5 Rods by 10 rods
Philip Job Hall “Hotel
& Saloon Owner”
Philip Job Hall was an
English Mormon convert who married Caroline [Kate] Hill , the daughter of Mary
Griffiths the former wife of Henry Hill. Mary divorced in Hill in 1872
and became the plural wife of Alexander Ledingham. Hall owned 100 square
rods of Lot Four having purchased it from Christopher Merkley.
In May 1883, Hall mortgaged his interest in the south half
of Lot Four to Zion’s Bank for $200. In February 1884 Hall took out another
$600 mortgage from Matthias Jorgenson which was paid off in March, when he
again mortgaged his property to Jorgenson for $1200 which he paid off by June
that year. He may have paid of Jorgensen by securing in June a $1500
mortgage from Philip Pugsley, [1822-1903] a prominent businessman of the
Nineteenth Ward, for all of the property in the south half of Lot
Four.
Certainly, Pugsley knew
the value of the land being adjacent to the Denver & Rio Grande Depot. In
June 1882 Pugsley had testified at the Salt Lake City Council in favor of
granting the Denver & Rio Grande Railway a right of way on Sixth [Seventh]
West. A petition, signed by 21 residents of the area, stated that
they “believed it would be a great benefit to residents there by reason of the
ultimate improvement of the street in the way of graveling and draining the
same which must be necessarily follow the building of the road.” The
council adopted the Committee of Streets and Alleys report and gave the Denver
& Rio Grande railway the right of way over Sixth [Seventh]
West.
Philip Hall in 1885 had
a $740 mortgage lien to a lumber firm called “Taylor Romney, and Armstrong
Company” for material to build his hotel and saloon. An advertisement
from 1885 stated the company owned a “Lumber Yard and Planning Mill Half Block
east of Depot”.
By June 1887 Philip Hall
and his wife “Kate” had mortgaged his interest in the south half of Lot Four to
Elijah Whitaker for $2000. On 22 June 1887 Hall filed a warranty deed selling
the south half of Lot Four to Henry Moore for $4500.
Henry Moore “Real Estate
Developer”
Henry Moore [1838-1889]
was the brother-in-law of James H. Moyles who was the chef stone mason supervisor
for the building of the Salt Lake Temple who owned part of Lot Five in Block
64. Moore extensively involved in real estate and purchasing property in Block
64. He resided at 509 West First Street.
Henry Moore according to
the 1880 federal census was a “hack driver and lived next to Benjamin P Brown
on First South Street in Block 64. When Moore died of paralysis, probably a
stroke, in 1889 his brother-in-law James H. Moyle was appointed administrator
of his estate filing a bond of $1,870.
The next day Henry Moore
and his wife Christian after purchasing bought the property from Phillip Hall
they then turned around and sold the same property description to James Hegney
for $4500. This transaction seems really peculiar as that Moore
did not seem have the kind of money to have paid Hall $4500.
Both Moore and Hall were
Mormons and members of the Fifteenth Ward while Hegney was an Irish Catholic.
Perhaps Moore was a go between Hall and Hegney for whatever reason.
In June 1887 James
Hegney became the sole owner of the south half of Lot Four and by 1889 owned
the north half as well. .
The North Half of Lot
Four 5 Rods by 10 rods
John Ream “Realtor”
Not much is known of
John Ream, who acquired the northern half of Lot Four in April 1882. The property
fronted Fifth [Sixth] West and Second South. Ream may have been a French Swiss
emigrant named John Joseph Ream [1850-1937] a railroad engineer. The 1880
federal census enumerated Ream as living in Evanston, Wyoming. A divorce suit
was filed in 1885 between a Belle Ream [Isabelle Tucker] and John Ream with the
wife accusing her husband of incompatibility and difference of
disposition and temper. She also said John Ream had willfully neglected
and refused to provide for her actual wants and comforts although abundantly
able to do.”
John Ream may never have
lived on the property but only bought it for an investment. He is not recorded
in the 1883 and 1884 directories of Salt Lake City. He sold the property to
Samuel L Hanak [1835-1903] in February 1883. However, Hanak mortgaged the
parcel for $2150 and then warranty deeded it back to Ream for the same amount
in the same month.
Samuel L Hanak
“Developer”
Samuel L Hanak came to
Utah in 1881 from California. The 1880 federal census stated Hanak was a hotel
proprietor in Bodie, California. This mortgage may have been for the
construction of the Denver & Rio Grande Hotel which was built prior
to October 1884.
Peter Galligan
“Developer”
John Ream then also sold
the lot to a man named Peter Galligan also in February 1883. Ream may have left
Utah as he was not listed in the 1884 city directory especially if he was a
railroad engineer.
Peter Galligan [1838-?]
was Irishman who by 1870 was working in a Central Pacific Railroad machine shop
in Terrace, Box Elder County, Utah. The community of Terrace had only been
established in April 1869, a month before the completion of the
Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point. Terrace was simply an operation
base for the Central Pacific, but it included a 16-stall roundhouse and an
eight-track switchyard.
Little is known of the
Irishman Galligan who bought from John Ream in February 1883 all of the North
half of Lot Four containing 100 square rods for $1500. However, by March
1883 he had mortgaged this property to Dr. Samuel Linnzey Sprague
[1807-1886] of the 13th Ward. Within the year he paid off the
mortgage.
Peter Galligan, in 1884
was granted a renewal of a liquor license, therefore he must have owned a
saloon perhaps located in the Rio Grande Hotel, and if so, it would have been
on this property. However, he himself is never listed in the city
directories.
Fred Barnes and John
Schill “Hotel owners”
In May 1884 Galligan
leased to a man named Fred Barnes 75 feet by 80 feet of the parcel except for
the “Westside lease and occupied by John Schill. Nothing is known of these two
men.
The 1884 city directory
listed Fred Barnes as the proprietor of the Denver & Rio Grande Hotel. In October
1884, a brand-new pool table was being sold at the Denver & Rio Grande
Hotel. A newspaper mentioned the “opening of the Rio Grande Hotel” in
August 1885 which probably meant it was under new management perhaps James
Hegney, a first generation American of Irish descent. In October 1885
Hegney, “proprietor of the Rio Grande Hotel and Saloon” was granted by the city
a renewal of his liquor licenses.
Elijah Sells “Lumber
Shop Owner”
Peter
Galligan began having financial problems and lost his property in a lawsuit to
Elijah Sells owner of “Sells and Company” which may have provided the lumber to
have built the Denver & Rio Grande Hotel.
The 1880 federal census
listed Elijah Sells as a “lumber dealer” but he was also a Colonel and a
Fort Douglas Post Commander. He and his son William H Sells were partners
enumerated in the census as lumber merchants.
In March 1884 Sells and
Company attached an $892 lien against the north half of Lot Four including
“buildings, attachments and the land.” The next month, in April 1884, the
Third District Court sided with a man named P.W. Madsen, a merchant, in his
suit against Galligan for $419 from which his property was ordered sold at a
Sheriff Sale.
In June 1884
Elijah Sells “was granted by the courts the right to foreclose on Peter
Galligan and George M Scott, a hardware merchant from whom from Galligan had
taken out a $2000 mortgage.
John R Cook and John
Charles Chaffe Glanfield “businessmen”
During January
1885, Elijah Sells sold the north half of Lot Four to businessmen John R. Cook
[1818-1910] and John Charles Chaffe Glanfield [1841-1920] for $925. John Cook
and John Glanfield were partners as “Wholesale and Retail Butchers.” Cook and
Glanfield assumed the $2000 mortgage which was paid off in 1888.
John Glanfield came to
the United States from South Africa in 1865 on the ship Mexicana. He then came
to Utah and may have traveled in the 1865 Henson Walker Company. But the first
documentation which placed him in Utah, was the birth of a child in September
1868.
John R Cook emigrated to
Utah in 1850 with the Milo Andrus Company at the age of 31. He was employed as
a teamster for Mrs. James Steed. Thomas Stead who had emigrated from England to
Nauvoo in 1844, and who afterwards became a resident of Farmington, Utah,
crossed the plains in Capt. Milo Andrus' company. He kept a journal of his
crossing.
"On the 1st
of May 1850, we bade farewell to old Keokuk, Iowa, and bent our way toward
Council Bluffs. We were a company of five wagons, Bro. Richard Cook, who had
just arrived from England, came with us; Henry Steed and my cousin
James [Steed's] wife and family; we had fitted her out with a team
that Bro. John Cook was to drive for her.”
We were 16 souls all
together and had pretty good luck in traveling through the mud and bad roads of
Iowa. We arrived in Kanesville in the later part of May without any material
accident and all in good health. Here we stayed a few days and were organized
into the first company of Mormon emigrants in 1850. We crossed the Missouri
river the 1st of June and traveled along the south side of the Platte River.
Milo Andrus was the captain of our company of 50 wagons.
We got along pretty
well into Salt Creek. Here the stream was swollen so high that the bridge
had been carried away; so, we were obliged to go to work and build a raft to
carry our wagons over. We got it made in a day and the next day all our wagons
were passed across in safety.
We had but very little
sickness in our company, although sickness and death was before us and behind
us daily (among other trains of emigrants), but through the mercy of God we
were preserved.
Elder Hyde had told us
the day we were organized, that if we would be faithful and keep the name of
our God sacred, we should be blessed with health and our lives would be
preserved. We endeavored to do our duty to the best of our ability and the
promises of God were fulfilled toward us; there was one death and one birth, so
we were just as many when we landed in the Valley. After a long and tedious
journey, we arrived at Great Salt Lake City Aug. 28, 1850."
The 1880 Federal census
listed John Cook’s family as living in the 19th Ward. In 1886 his
daughter married the grandson of the Mormon Apostle Parley Parker Pratt.
The Cook and Glanfield
partners must have been fairly successful butchers for a newspaper account from
1882 revealed that their safe was broken into and they were robbed of $800 in
cash and $700 in checks.
Not much is found
regarding John R Cook in newspapers except that in 1889 he was charged with
slaughtering animals within the “fire limits” and was fined $10.
September 1888 was a
busy time for transactions between John R Cook, John Charles Chaffe Glanfield,
and James Hegney in regard to the northern half of Lot Four where the Rio
Grande Hotel was located. The partners sold to James Hegney for $14,000 the
north half of Lot Four in September 1888 by a “Bargain and Sale” Deed. A
bargain and sale deed indicates that only the seller of a property holds the
title and has the right to transfer ownership. This type of deed offers no
guarantees for the buyer against liens or other claims to the property, so the
buyer could be responsible for those issues, if they turned up. This indicated
that there were several liens against the property and Hegney effectively
inherited any and all liens that existed against the real estate.
James Hegney
At the same time as this
transaction, James Hegney and his wife Eliza mortgaged the property back to
Cook and Glanfield for $5000. James Hegney and wife Eliza also later took out
another mortgage for $1,200 from Cook and Glanfield.
Street
Addresses for Lot Four Block 63 Plat A
237 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
Philip Job Hall
“businessman”
Philip J Hall
[1840-1898] had immigrated to the United States from Liverpool, England as a
Mormon Convert in 1866, leaving a wife behind in England. He remarried in 1870
Caroline [Kate] Hill daughter of George Hill and Mary Bishop
Griffiths.
The 1880 federal census
listed Hall along with his wife Kate and three minor children living within the
Fifteenth Ward. He was listed as a carpenter and a native of
England.
The 101st
residence visited was that of Philip Hall who was listed as the 124th
head of household enumerated. His family was residing within a “boarding house”
with three other families. They were the families of John Edwards as the 123rd,
John Allen’s as the 125th, and William Price’s as the 126th.
These families all lived on Fifth [Sixth] West.
The 1885 city directory
stated that Philip Hall operated a General Stores at this address of 237 South
in a two-story brick building located within the South Half of Lot Four.
In January 1885, a M.M. Burd sued Philip Hall for back wages. Burd had been hired
as a cook for $1 a day and when he was discharged there was balance owing him
for $49.30.
In September 1885, the
roof of Hall’s brick building was destroyed by a blaze from an adjoining
building. “The wooden roof of Philip Hall’s the two-story structure alongside
the Denver House had caught fire by the time the Salt Lake fire department
arrived.” The “intense heat generated” by the fire had “burned
black a telephone pole in the street near the sidewalk” and “the hitching posts
were also charred.”
Philip Hall’s brick
building “in which [James] Keenan’s’ furniture was stored, was also badly
damaged by fire and water.” Keenan had earlier moved “his furniture and
other goods into the large brick and adobe structure and lost $600 worth of
property due to the blaze. He had no insurance to cover his loss. Neither did
Andrew W. O’Grady, the Irish proprietor of the Colorado saloon located on the
first floor. O’Grady lost everything and it was reported that “he had to borrow
a hat and coat to wear today.” Fortunately, Philip Hall did carry insurance and
he claimed $1700 worth of damages to his brick building.
By 1888 Philip Hall had
left the Rio Grande District and moved to Seventeenth North and Seventh
[Eighth] West where he died ten years later.
Andrew W. O’Grady &
The Colorado Saloon
After the fire of
September 1885, Andrew W. O’Grady, saloonkeeper of the Colorado Saloon,
continued to be open for business.
Peter Tomney and James
Hillstead & The Colorado Saloon
The Colorado
saloon under Tomney’s management was promoted as being “stocked with a complete
line of the choices wines, liquors, and cigars. The celebrated Fischer beer
will always be found on draught. Fine bottle goods a specialty and everything
included in the newly refitted place.”
The Western Saloon
In 1889 Johnston and
Raymond were granted a liquor license and in March 1890, Edmund Butterworth
sold a lease to Johnston and Raymond for their saloon. The 1890 City
Directory for Salt Lake City listed James K Johnston and Frank F Raymond’s
Saloon at 241 South Fifth [Sixth] West.
James K Johnston
James K Johnston
[1840-1891] was a native of McDuff, Scotland. His surname was often
misspelled as “Johnson”. He and his wife Eliza Jane Kendall Johnston [1855-1909]
lived in St. Louis, Missouri before coming to Salt Lake City. They were married
in 1874 in St. Louis, Missouri. The 1877 city directory for St. Louis Missouri
listed him as operating a restaurant on Seventh Street.
Frank Raymond
Frank Raymond [1854-?]
was a partner of James K. Johnston in two saloon enterprises. Raymond testified
in court, “I was born in Richmond Virginia, and I lived there until I was
fifteen-year-old, [1869] when I went to New York. I lived there 1878 going to school
part of the time. In 1878 I went to Denver & Leadville. Then I went to Old
Mexico with a surveying party. In 1885 I returned to Denver & then went to
Wyoming where I worked for the Swan Cattle company.”
Albert Charles Miller
“Grocer”
Albert Charles Miller
[1863-1945] was a confectioner at this location in 1891 and 1892
and operated a grocery store in 1893. He would eventually move to Block 64 and
be a Grocery Merchant on First South and Fourth [Fifth] West.
Anna Farmer Lodging House
Keeper”
The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed a two-story
dwelling at this address. The 1900 federal census listed the family of a
44-year-old widow named Anna Farmer at this address. She was the
widow of John Farmer and had four children living at home with her all born in
Utah although she was a native of New York state. Her occupation was given as
“lodging housekeeper”. Six men were living at this address in her household.
The oldest was 73 years old and the youngest was 25 years old. They all
appeared to have employment in the Rio Grande Rail yards as locomotive
firemen, railroad watchmen, Boiler maker machinist helper. Two of the six men
were immigrants from Sweden and Ireland.
235 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
In the 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map the north half of the two-story adobe building was listed as a
dwelling at this address. Just a few to the north a spur line of the Rio Grande
Western Railroad had tracks going 330 feet into Lot Four. The 1898 Sanborn map
stated that by that time the track was not in use but there was a
three-foot-high platform dock at the end of the line.
231 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
In 1889 a two-story
brick building 45 feet north of the Philip Hall property was being built
A saloon was on the first floor and sleeping rooms on the second floor.
Directly behind it was a wooden one-story Hotel office. Nine feet to the
south of it was another small one-story wooden structure that was used as
“hotel rooms”. By 1898 the brick building was used as a storage warehouse
and all the structures behind it had been demolished for an easement for the
spur line.
Timothy Monahan “Railroad
Section Foreman”
The 1900 federal census listed two families
residing at this address: the Monahan Family and the Van Dusen Family. Timothy
Monahan was a 37-year-old Irishman who immigrated to the United States in 1879.
He was a railroad section foreman with a wife four children. The family moved
frequently as children were born in Colorado, Arizona, and Idaho.
Frank Van Dusen “Railroad
Switchman”
The family of Frank Van
Dusen consisted of a wife and a daughter. Van Dusen was a 37-year-old native of
Pennsylvania who worked as a railroad switchman.
229 South, 227
South, 225 , and 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West
The Rio Grande Hotel
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map did not list an address for the Rio Grande Hotel however in many
city directories it was listed as being at 221 South Fifth [Sixth West]. The
1891 city directory listed the address of the Rio Grande Hotel as 221 South
Fifth [Sixth] West with James Hegney proprietor. The Salt Lake Herald in 1893
while attacking the Liberal Party wrote “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” The address of 221 South was eventually given to a section
of the Albany Hotel located in Lot Five.
John McDonald
“At the Rio Grande Hotel
in this city on the evening of February 1st, [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
“Bookkeeper”
“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.
“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 by John F Collins, President of the Irish American Society, regarding
McKeague’s funeral, printed in the Salt Lake Herald Republican. “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. His
widow continued to reside at the Rio Grande after her husband’s death. McKeague
was buried in Mount Calvary the Catholic Cemetery.
Patrick H. Donovan “Rail
Yard Foreman”
“6 February 1895, Annie
Donovan age 7 beloved daughter of Patrick H. Donovan died of diphtheria
at 221 South Fifth [Sixth] West. Interment Catholic Cemetery.” Her father
was a rail yard foreman and brother of John Donovan, the Salt Lake City Police
Captain.
James Collins “Railroad
Laborer”
In 1898 James Collins,
“a native of Ireland aged 40 years” died. His “funeral cortege at his late
Residence, 225 South Fifth [Sixth] West . Services at St. Mary’s cathedral. The
boys employed at the Oregon Short Line shops are a big-hearted lot. One of
their mates James Collins has been sick for some time and the shop men have
expressed their sympathy by raining a purse of $65 and presenting Mr. Collins
with it. James Collins a railroad employee who suffered a rupture of a
blood vessel in his brain while doing some heavy lifting a year ago, died
yesterday. Collins had been ill ever since the misfortune befell him.”
Lydia Seamons
Crowthers “Dressmaker”
The Rio Grande Hotel was
no longer listed in the City Directory in 1896 at which time the Crowther
Family appears to have taken up residency at the address. “Mrs. Lydia S.
Crowther Dressmaker.”
Lydia Seamons
Crowthers [1841-1917] was the plural wife of Edwin Dugard Heber Crowther
[1841-1907] who worked as a miner and was the father of 15 children by his two
wives.
In 1890 was charged with
unlawful Cohabitation with Lydia Crowther and Ellen G Heffernan.
Edwin Crowthers had been pardoned in 1886 by President Grover Cleveland but
after he had said he abandoned the polygamist relationships and that he “no
longer gave the doctrine any countenance and support”, he was still having sex
with Ellen Heffernan. He had a baby by this plural wife after the 1886 pardon, so
he was tried again for cohabitation.
Ellen G Heffernan
testified, “I was married twenty years ago to Mr. Crowther. The defendant
had a wife. He does nothing for my support and does not pretend to live with me
after he was pardoned by the President. He was at my house a number of times.”
The 18-year-old daughter
of Edwin and Ellen Crowthers, Ella G Crowther, testified against her father
saying, “father has had two wives, one my mother and the other Lydia Crowther;
father lives now with the latter who is his first wife; during the past three
years he has been at my mother’s house a number of times; has not stayed
overnight; mother has seven children, the youngest about a year old; mother has
not been married again. I heard father say to her that she need not say who was
the father of the youngest child.”
Addressing Edwin
Crowthers, she said, “when you got the pardon, I told you that you had disowned
me and the rest of us; I clung to you until the last and that is what I got for
it; I never said I hated you, though you have done enough to make me do
so.”
During the examination.
Edwin Crowthers said he was not the father of his plural wife’s youngest child
and “Judge McKay asked Crowthers if he wanted to bring that disgrace on the
plural wife and her children in order to save himself and he
affirmed.”
The U.S. Commissioner
then “held him for adultery instead of unlawful cohabitation and fixed bail
fixed at $1500.
Benjamin Smith “Grocer”
In 1891 Benjamin Smith,
a Grocer, resided at the address of 225 South Fifth [Sixth] West. The 1892 city
directory stated he had moved his Grocery store to 255 South Fifth West where
he was also in 1893.
Raffael Marine
By 1895 the Raphael
Marine’s family was residing was residing at this 227 South address, the former
Rio Grande saloon, in 1895 and 1896.
Louis Mastorni “Railroad
Laborer”
The Italian family of Louis Mastorni was enumerated at this address
in the 1900 federal census along with four other Italian men and a
67-year-old Frenchman. Louis Mastorni was a 35-year-old Italian railroad
laborer with a wife and three children. He stated that he immigrated in
1890.
George Lavallee “Chief Musician”
Boarding with this
family was a Frenchman George Lavallee named age 67 who stated he immigrated to
the United States in 1848. His occupation was given as “Chief Musician USA”.
Daniel Bossio “ Railroad laborer”
Daniel Bossio was listed
as the head of a household consisting of three Italian lodgers all young men
and railroad laborers. Bossio was only 18 years old, and the three
lodgers were 26-, 23-, and 20-year-old, all immigrating in 1890 when they would
have been children if the information was accurate.
Adolph C Smith
“Teamster”
Adolph C Smith, a
teamster, boarded at the address of 223 South Fifth [Sixth] West from 1895 to
1896.
Sarah Francell Haskell
“dressmaker”
The 1900 federal census
listed a 34-year-old dressmaker, named Frances Haskell at this address. Sarah
Francell Haskell [1866-1930] was the plural wife of Alfred Derrick. She
used her maiden name and said she was a widow, although Alfred Derrick was
still living. Two male boarders were also living in the household.
The 1899 city Directory
listed her as Francell S Haskell “conf 223 South 5th west residing
218 South 6th East. A marriage record from 1899 showed that she
married a man named Benjamin Henry whom she must have separated from by
1900.
Chapter Fifteen
Lot Five Block 63 Plat A
The corner of Second
South and Fifth [Sixth] containing one and a quarter acre with 10 rods [165
feet] fronting Fifth [Sixth] West and 20 rods [330 feet] fronting Second south.
The lot was dividing into two sections of 100 square rods with the western half
at the corner of Fifth and Second and the eastern half only fronting Second
South.
The 1889 Sanborn Map
showed that western half of Lot Five was essentially empty except for two,
small one-story adobe dwellings, separated from one another by 82 feet. Their
addresses were 561 West and 545 West Second South.
Twenty feet eastward,
perhaps between Lot Five and Lot Six, contained a two-story adobe dwelling at
537 West and behind it, 97 feet away, was a one and a half story wooden
dwelling with the address of 537 ½ West. This was the residence of James L.
Bess.
Theophilus Williams
“Mormon Pioneer”
Theophilus Williams 1791–1874] a Welsh, Mormon pioneer,
died intestate in 1874, leaving a widow Mary who died herself in January 1886.
In 1883 his widow Mary Williams leased part of Lot Five to Henry Buhring, who
built a Beer Hall on the corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth].
Henry Buhring in 1884
mortgaged the northwest corner of Lot Five with George Mears for $433. The
property included south 10 rods [165 feet] and east 5 rods [82.5] for 50 square
rods. Upon this spot he built the Denver Beer Hall at the address of 579 West
Second South.
The heirs of Theophilus
and Mary Williams included a 60-year-old son named Joseph Williams who lived in
Missouri and a 51-year-old daughter Rachel Isaac the wife of John Isaac. The
heirs of Theophilus Williams also included minor grandchildren, the offspring
of his deceased son Benjamin Williams who were still residing in Wales.
In 1886 the widow Mary
Williams and Joseph Williams conveyed title to the Lot Five property to Rachel
Isaac.
Richard Philip Morris Mayor of Salt Lake City
John Isaac, as
administrator of Theophilus Williams estate, August 1887 sold to Richard
P Morris for $1500, as the highest bidder, property located from
the Northwest corner of Lot Five which was described as “east twelve rods
[198 feet] and south ten rods [165 feet]”. In 1889 J. R Lane, administrator of
the estate of Theophilus Williams conveyed to Richard P Morris a 10 by 10 rods
Lot Five Block 63 plat A $1500
Richard Philip Morris
[1855-1925] was the son Richard Vaughn Morris and nephew of William Vaughn
Morris. He was elected Mayor of Salt Lake City on the Independent Party ticket
and took office 4 January 1904. His administration was immediately criticized
for sweeping appointments which did not include many of the already established
Republican city office holders and he served one term in office. His second
wife was Florence Ann Dinwoodey who had divorced Mormon Apostle Rudger Judd Clawson).
When he died in California the flags at the City County building were placed at
half-mast.
Street Addresses for Lot
Five Block 63 Plat A
219 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
Biaggio Falcone “Grocer”
The 1900 Federal census
listed an Italian named Biagio [Biaggio] Falcone as the head of a household
consisting of his cousin, his cousin’s wife and four boarders. Falcone, his
cousin, and his cousin’s wife were Italian immigrants who came 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 rail yards as
machinists and a boiler maker while one said he was a farmer.
217 South, 215 South and
211 South Fifth [Sixth] West
These addresses were
part of the Albany Hotel Complex and may have been the Dining Room as well as
other shops.
599 West , 597 West, and
595 West Second South
The Albany Hotel and
Saloon
Prior to the Albany Hotel,
Henry Buhring’s Denver Beer Hall Saloon and Restaurant existed on the corner of
Fifth West and Second South at the address of 579 West. After the Albany Hotel
was built the addresses were changed from the 570’s to the 590’s but eventually
after the turn of the Twentieth Century reverted back to the 570’s.
The Albany Hotel
In August 1890, the
architect firm of Carroll and Kern “closed a contract with Mr. Brown of Ogden
for erecting the Daly, Burk and Kullak building” at Second South and Fifth
[Sixth] West. “The building will be 165 X 50, two stories high. The contract
price is $18,000. It will contain a large lodging house and nine stores.”
This edifice became the
Albany Hotel complex which contained six addresses fronting Fifth West and
three addresses fronting Second South. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
showed that only the south wall of the complex was made of brick and the rest
was a two-story wooden building.
The addresses of 223 and
221 South were listed as residential dwellings and 219 South featured a shop
and a dwelling. The addresses of 217, 215, and 211 South Fifth West were on the
ground floor. Above all these spaces were the lodging rooms of the Albany Hotel
The Second South
addresses were 599 West which was the entrance to the Saloon. The entrance to
the hotel was 597 West, and the Hotel office and living quarters of the Hegney
family was 595 West.
James Hegney in
September 1893 took out a $27,000 mortgage from the Salt Lake Real Estate
Company to purchase the northwest corner of Lot Five measuring ten rods south
and twelve rods east.
The Albany Hotel was a
large two-story brick and wooden building located on the corner of Fifth
[Sixth] and Second South. West [today Sixth West]. The Second South frontage
measured fifty feet and one hundred feet on Fifth West. The Second South
frontage contained entrances to the saloon, and upstairs into rooms on the
second floor and to the residence entrance for the Hegney family.
The building’s three
main entrances were listed as 595 West, 597 West and 599 West on Second South.
The entrance to the Albany Hotel Lobby was at 597 West. The entrance to the
“Hegney Saloon” was from 599 West and the Hegney family residence was located
at 595 West.
The Saloon portion of
the complex was on the ground main floor. The entrance to second floor which
contained the sleeping quarters for guests was 597 West. Often guests shared
these rooms which contained just one bed which was customary in the Nineteenth
Century. Often these two addresses were interchangeable at the up-stair
rooms had access into the saloon.
The 1894 Salt Lake City
Directory listed the Albany Hotel’s address as being at 595 West Second South
with James Hegney, Proprietor. This address was actually the family residence
on the main level. In the 1896 directory 595 West was listed as the address of
James Hegney Saloon. The three addresses appear to have been often confused.
During some of the
1890’s, Jim Hegney operated both the Rio Grande and the Albany Hotels as
proprietor, but eventually he gave up the Rio Grande. The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance map showed that the Rio Grande Hotel was vacant. It would later be
used by others as a rooming house rather than a hotel.
James Hegney’s family of
his wife and seven children lived at this address in according to the 1900
federal census. His household also included two Chinese cooks, a bartender, two
housekeepers, a hotel clerk, and forty lodgers.
A café and saloon was at
various times listed at this address however it certainly was the main
residence of the Hegney family.
Others mentioned as
boarding at this address from 1895 to1896 were Joseph J Fastabrand
[Fastaben] a railway laborer , James Fell a trackman for the Union
Pacific system. John Woodford, Jesse Collins a clerk, Daniel Cronin a laborer,
and John Gordon an engine fireman for the Rio Grande Western.
571 West Second South
Twenty-nine feet
to east of the Albany Hotel was a one-story wooden building divided into two
sections. One half was a barbershop and the other a shoe shop.
Joseph G Kroner
In 1895 it was the
residence of Joseph G Kroner. He was gone from the city by 1896.
Alexander Lundquist
“Barber”
By 1898 it was the
location of a Barber Shop. A Swede named Alexander Lundquist operated the
Barber Shop at this location according to the 1900 City Directory. He resided
however on Jeremy Street. He had moved from this location as the 1901
City Directory showed that a barber named John J. Jensen was working out of
this address which Lundquist had vacated.
569 West Second South
This location was a shoe
shop ran by various shoemakers. In 1895 James Marine lived here and in 1896 James
V Murray, a Boot and Shoemaker, operated a shop here and residing here.
Henry Harms Shoemaker
By 1898 another
Shoemaker, Henry Harms, worked out of this location. The 1900 federal census
sated he lived on Euclid Ave and was a German immigrant. In 1903 “The local
shoe cobblers organized a union with Henry Harms president.” When he wed in
1904, he was living across the street at 592 West Second South in Block
64.
565 West Second South
Wah Lee
The 1892 City Directory
for Salt Lake City listed Wah Lee as having a laundry business at 565 West
Second South Street. He was again listed as having a laundry at the same
address in 1893 and 1894.
563 West Second South
Twenty-nine feet further
east was a complex of four addresses. The building was probably built for James
Hegney. At 563 West was a one-story wooden dwelling fronting Second South with
an adobe addition behind it.
Manin N Walker
In 1895 a man named
Manin N. Walker resided here.
James Andrew Lombardi “Italian
Grocer”
By 1900 James Andrew
Lombardi’s family of a wife and three children lived here. He was an Italian
Grocer but had left Second South by 1903 and moved to Thistle Utah where by
1905 he operated a Saloon for many years. This location was formerly of
Wah Lee’s Chinese Laundry.
561 West Second South
This section of the
complex was the same size as 563 West except that the adobe addition was a bit
larger.
Laura Murray “cook”
Laura Murray,
[1850-1923] widow of Patrick Murray. She may have been divorced from John
Gressman as he was living in the Brighton area near the Jordan River. She
listed as the head of a household of four grown sons and a minor daughter in
the 1900 census at this address. Her occupation was given as a cook and two of
her sons were “ore miners”, Joseph Gressman [1867-1907] and Odin Gressman
[1877-1940].
Laura Murray had moved
out by 1901 from this place when the city directory stated she rented out
furnished rooms at 539 West Second South. She had moved away from Second South
altogether by 1903.
559 West Second South
This address was the
location of a Dying and Cleaning business according to the 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map.
John C Hupfer “Cigar
Store Keeper”
However, In 1900 John C.
Hupfer operated a Cigar Store at this address and resided there. Henry C.
Hupfer who was his clerk in the store also resided here.
William Street “miner”
William Street’s family
of a wife and daughter also lived at this address in 1900. The 1900 city
directory gave his occupation as a miner. The 1900 federal census stated he was
Welsh, but no occupation was given for him. By 1910 he had moved to Carbon County
where he was a coal miner.
557 West Second South
In 1907 the widow of
James Hegney received a builders permit for $11,000 to construct a new complex
at this address
The West Side Drug Store
This structure was
attached the same complex, but it was a wooden two-story building. In January
1895, a notice of the dissolution of a partnership between James Hegney and
Samuel H. Willard, who were in the business known as the West Side Drug Company
was published.
James Hegney printed an
advertisement in July 1896 for a druggist. “Druggist At west Side Drug Store
557 West Second So. Must be a single man.”
William Seinsoth “Boiler
Maker”
William Seinsoth’s
family of a wife and six children resided at this address in 1900. He was a
boiler maker and one of his sons was a baker’s apprentice. Their 3-year-old
daughter of Scarlet fever in 1901 when the family was living at 425 South
Fourth [Fifth] West.
Linsley Clayton “Druggist”
Also, at the address
in1900, as a separate household, was 21-year-old Lynn [Linsley] Clayton living
by himself. listed his occupation as a “druggist.” By 1903 Clayton had
returned to Kansas
Meredith M Catching “Shop Keeper”
This location then
became the residence of Meredith M. Catching’s and a Cigar and Confectionary
Store.
547 West Second South
A 53-foot-wide easement
ran 165 feet to the northeast portion of lot Five between 557 West and 547 West
which may have later been named Woodbine Street.
This address had a small
one-story wooden shop part of a complex five connecting addresses with an adobe
structure in the rears that in 1898 was considered vacant.
1893 For Sale Alpine
Fire and Burglar proof safe, all sizes. Agents wanted. Exclusive territory.
Call on or address W.P Dodds 547 West second South.
Fert Schmidt “Barber”
In 1893 the police were
looking for “Fert Schmidt, a barber recently employed in Sheet’s shop on east
First Street. They want him for using abusive language to his wife on July 4th
and for cruelly beating her at their residence 547 West Second South, yesterday
[10 July] morning.
545 West Second South
Hans C Hanson “Tailor”
Hans C Hanson’s Tailor Shop was at this location
from 1895 through 1896 although he resided at 872 West First South. The front
and west side of the shop had a brick siding although the rest of the one-story
building was wooden.
543 West Second South
William Godfrey Gane “Jeweler”
The front of this
one-story building was brick although the rest was constructed of
lumber. In 1898 William Godfrey Gane [1867-1902] operated a Jewelry store
at this location. His family resided on Fourth [Fifth] West. It was reported
that he was “Well known as Goff Zane.”
541 West Second South
1892 Coats and Corum for
a one-story brick addition at 541 West Second South to cost $900. 1893 For sale
for $2,100; First Class Saloon, doing good business, cheap rent, necessary cash
$700 $875 in trade , $525 payable in twenty-one months. Apply to F. Akin
541 West Second South.
William Murray “railroad
switchman”
The 1900 federal census
listed the family of William Murray at this address however this was more than
likely the dwelling in the rear in the southwest corner. He had a wife Jane and
seven children. He was a 42-year-old railroad switchman with an 18-year-old
son, William D Murray, who was a railroad car painter.
Murray was a native of
Missouri but both parents were Irish. The family had recently moved from
Wyoming after 1897 when a baby son was born in 1900 in Utah. They were renting
this place.
The 1900 and 1901 city
directories listed William D Murray as a switchman for the Denver & Rio
Grande Railway and was said to be residing in the rear of 541 West Second
South. The family was gone from Second South by 1902 and had moved to Los
Angeles, California.
539 West Second South
The Clausen Brothers
Grocery Store
The Clausen brothers,
Hans [1843-1926] and Andrew [1852-1919], were Danish emigrants who operated a
Grocery shop at this address in 1891. They advertised in 1892 “Wanted to trade
for Good Milk cow. No 539 West Second South.” The brothers later moved their
grocery store to the corner of Eight [Ninth] West and Second South.
George L Hepburn
“waiter”
From 1895 to 1896,
George L Hepburn resided at 539 West as a waiter for the J C Wise Café at 58
East First South. In 1892 he was living at 255 South Fifth [Sixth] West as an
employee of the Rio Grande Wester Railroad. This may have actually been Mrs.
Liday’s boarding House located at 253 South.
The following year he was still living at 255
South but had left the railroad and worked as a cook for Henry Bridgeford. By
1898 he left was still working at the Wise Café but was lodging at the Lincoln
House near the cafe.
Alexander Morgan & The Morgan Grocery
In 1896 The Morgan
Grocery and Commission Company operated at this address. The store was owned by
Alexander Morgan and Frank Baer who also resided at the address. George Morgan
was a driver for the Morgan Grocery and also lived at in rear of the store.
Mary E Baer was listed as the bookkeeper for the Grocery store.
Frank M Baer “Grocer”
The 1897 directory
listed Francis [Frank] M Baer as a grocer at 531 West Second South and residing
there. Alexander Morgan is no longer listed however George Morgan was listed as
a driver for W.S Henderson but still boarded in the rear of 539 West Second
South.
In 1899 a building permit was issued to the
Mountain Ice Company to build a barn and icehouse in the rear of 539 West
Second South for $650.
Albert O Woods “General
Store Keeper”
The 1900 City Directory
listed Albert O. Woods as operating a General Store at this address although h
lived at 768 West 2nd South.
Mrs. Laura Murray and
Mrs. Mary Bass
In 1901 Mrs. Laura
Murray had furnished rooms to rent in the rear of this address. In 1903 Mrs.
Mary Bass operated a Boarding house in the rear of this address
537 West Second South
In 1898 the Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a wooden one and half story dwelling located in the
southeast corner of Lot Five. It was accessed by an 18-foot wide by 165 feet
easement. In 1895 a Mr. F. B Huffman took out a Building Permit for a $925
addition. At this address.
Several other buildings were numbered 537 ½ West that
appear to have been located in the southwest corner of Lot Six which would have
been accessed by the same easement 18-foot-wide easement.
Chapter Sixteen
Lot Six Block 63 Plat A
Lot Six had a contested
title that was resolved in 1872. It had been purchased in 1864 by Joseph
Chamberlin who resold it among James L Bess, Amos Jones, and Benjamin
Rowland.
James L Bess held title
to fifty feet by 165 feet [ ten rids] from the west portion of Lot Six Fourth
[Fifth] West]. He sold part of this property to Elizabeth Robinson and Lewis S.
Hills for $410. He sold his remaining interest to Benjamin Rowland for $1400
In 1889 172 feet
separated the corner third at Second South and Fourth [Fifth] West of from a
537 West. The section was divided into four parcels. A one-story brick dwelling
was located at 513 West, separated by 38 feet from another one-story brick
dwelling at the corner of Second South and Fourth [Fifth] which had the address
of 204 South. Twenty-four feet to the south was a one-story brick dwelling
located at 210 South. Separated by only three feet was a one and a half story
wooden frame dwelling address 214 South and in the same parcel 15 feet to the
south was a one-story half wooden frame and half adobe brick building at the
address of 220 South Fourth [Fifth] West.
By 1898 a complex of
three shops were located in a one-story brick and adobe building located in the
northwest corner of lot Six containing the addresses of 535 West, 533. West and
531 West which was entirely brick.
Benjamin Rowland Mormon Pioneer
Benjamin Rowland [1832-1910]
also spelled Rolland, Roland, and Rollins, was the main landowner for much of
Lot Six. Benjamin Rowland came to the United States from Wales in 1849 but did
arrived in Utah in 1853. He married Elizabeth Williams in 1862 and eventually
had eleven children while living on this lot. This family was listed in the
1870 federal census as the 106th Household in the
Fifteenth Ward
The 1880 federal census
listed Benjamin Rowland as the 261st household enumerated in
the Fifteenth District residing between Oliver C Bess and Edward King, on
Second South Street. He was listed as a 45-year-old “laborer”, who had been
eight months unemployed.
The 1883 and 1884 city
directories listed him as teamster residing at 519 West Second South when
street addresses began to be applied to residences.
Benjamin Rowland took
out a mortgage from Zion Bank in 1885 on land with the legal description of 2
rods [33 feet] east from the Northwest corner by 10 rods [165 fee].
In 1887 Benjamin Rowland
sold part of his property to Thomas Quayle and bought out James L Bess’ portion
of Lot Six for $1400. The 1888 directory listed his residence at 537 West
Second South as a laborer. Benjamin Rowland and his wife then sold to John C.
C. Glanfield and his partners in 1890 parts of his interest in Lot Six Block 63
plat A for $800.
From 1890 through 1894
he worked as a Teamster for “Wolstenholme and Morris.”
The Panic of 1893 must
have been hard of the family as that Benjamin and Elizabeth Rowland lost their
property in May 1893 due to a trustee sale. A default on payments to Edward B
Wicks had the family having to leave Lot Six in Block 63 however they continued
to live in the Fifteenth War boundaries.
About this time their
daughter Emma married Albert Neil Love, in 1894 who was stabbed during a fight
with a traveling salesman at the James Hegney Saloon on Second South.
By 1896 Benjamin Rowland
and his was boarded at 126 South Fifth [Sixth]. The family relocated again in
1897 to 136 South Fifth West. Again, the family moved in 1898 to 9 Roberts
Court located in Block 249 north from 628 West at First South.
Finally in 1899 the
family moved into a brick home in Block 65 at 157 South Fourth [Fifth] west
just below the Union Light and Power Company’s Citizen’s Light Plant.
Within Block 65 was also located the
Oregon Short Lights Roundhouse and rail yards as well as the Fifteenth Ward’s
Meeting House on First South. The residence at 157 South was a two-story brick
home with a wooden front porch and a one-story addition in the rear of the
house.
The 1900 federal census
showed that Rowland was living at 157 South Fourth [Fifth] West Street in Block
65 with his wife Elizabeth Williams Rowland. Eight of their children were
living with them as well as their grandson William Sampson who was born out of
wedlock. Five of the children living at home were grown adults ages 35 to 20
years old. His minor children were between ages of 18 and 12 years
old.
His oldest son Benjamin
W Rowland contracted Smallpox in 1900 and was isolated in a hospital until he
recovered. In 1905 Benjamin Rowland had two sons die three months apart. John T
Rowland age 32 died of typhoid fever at his father’s home at 157 South Fourth
[Fifth] west. His death was also said to have been caused by “Apoplexy”, a term formerly referred
to what is now called a stroke. His brother Morgan W. Rowland who had been a
bartender at the Western Saloon and at the time of his death the proprietor of
the Salt Aire Saloon, died of pneumonia at the age of 35.
After the death of his
two sons, the family moved again to 146 South Fourth [Fifth] West across the
street to Block 64 to the former residence of Captain Benjamin Pierce Brown
[1831-1905]. He lived at this residence until 1909 He worked as a flagman for
the Oregon Short Lane in 1906 and 1907 but afterwards simply listed as a
‘laborer”
In 1910 the family had
moved again to a brick duplex at 643 West First South Street in Block 248. The
1910 federal census taken in April two months before Benjamin Rowland died
enumerated him as living with his wife and five of his adult children and his
grandson William T Sampson. Here Benjamin Rowland died. His death certificate
stated he died of “dropsy” an old fashion term for edema which is swelling that
is caused by fluid trapped in your body’s tissues which cirrhosis of the liver
was a contributing factor in his death.
An obituary in the
Salt Lake Herald Republican was printed in June 1910 which read, “Benjamin
Rowland, Pioneer, Is Dead; Benjamin Rowland, one of the early pioneers of Salt
Lake died at 1:15 o’clock yesterday afternoon at the family residence 643 West
First South Street, aged 77 years. He had been in failing health for years and
general debility was the cause of death. He is survived by a widow and seven
children. Mrs. Rowland was born in Wales and came to Salt Lake in 1852. The
funeral will be held at 2’Clock Sunday afternoon from the Fifteenth Ward
chapel.”
The Tribune printed a
tribute saying “Benjamin Rowland’s Funeral. The funeral services over the body
of Benjamin Rowland who died Saturday of general debility were held in the
Fifteenth ward meeting house Sunday before a large gathering of friends and
relatives. Bishop John W. Boud presided at the services and the following were
speakers, John Roberts, Edward T Ashton, John H. Thomas, and David l Davis.
Music was furnished by a trio composed of J H, Ashton, Hannah Kjar, and Joseph
Kjar. Interment in the city cemetery.”
None of Benjamin Rowland’s
sons left posterity and only three of his daughters Maggie C Rowland, Mrs. Emma
Love, and Mrs. Annie Richmond left him grandchildren,
.
After the death of her
husband Elizabeth Rowland moved to 122 South Fourth [Fifth] West back in Block
64 where she died in 1922.
Amos Jones Mormon
Pioneer
Mormon Pioneer Amos
Jones in 1877 sold his interest in Lot Six to Obadiah
Riggs
Obadiah Riggs [1843-1907]
was the outspoken Territorial Superintendent
of Common Schools in 1874. It is doubtful Riggs ever lived on Second South and
probably bought the property as an investment. He was a polygamist who became
dissatisfied with Utah Mormonism. He left to moved back east where he joined
the Reorganized LDS Church. Tragically one of his abandoned plural wives
committed suicide. Rigg’s daughter by his first wife, who remained in Utah,
married David O McKay a future Mormon Church President.
Street Addresses for Lot
Six Block 63 Plat A
537 ½ West Second South
From 1899 to 1900 the
Mountain Ice Company’s “White Wagons” was located at this address which was in
Lot Six. J. D Wood was listed as President of the company and a second location
was located at 242 South Fourth [Fifth] West [Fifth West]. Both places were
located within Block 63.
535 West through 531
West
Woods Brothers Meat
Market
This building
complex contained three one story stores. Two were adobe with a brick façade
while the third was a brick building. At this address in 1896 was the Wood
Brothers Meat Market. Newton F Wood’s shop was located at this address
according to the City Directory in 1900. He lived on Cannon Street Newton Wood
[1869-1946] was enumerated in the 1900 federal census as a 31-year-old butcher,
married with a son. He later moved to Seattle Washington.
533 West Second South
Eugene Soper “Cigar
Store Keep”
Eugene A Soper
[1863-1903], a native of New York, operated a Cigar Store was at this address
in 1896. In 1895 an insurance committee denied him disability benefits even
though he lost all of the fingers on one hand by an accident working for the
Union Pacific Railway. He had nothing left but the stumps of the palm. He was
said to be totally disable as if he had lost his hand at the wrist. He
lived at 122 South Fourth [Fifth] West. By 1897 he had moved to 357 South
Fourth [Fifth] West.
William Miller Ferguson
“Barber”
William Miller Ferguson
[1856-1925] who was a native of Pennsylvania operated a Barber Shop at this
address in 1897 but lived at 870 Cannon Street. He had brought his family to
Salt Lake City from Nebraska. By 1898 he moved to 722 West First South.
In 1900, “People living
in the vicinity of the home of William M Ferguson of 722 West First South
complain that the quarantine which was established at that house on Saturday
[10 March] is not being strictly observed. A thirteen-year-old boy of the
family [Charles] was taken to the pest house on Friday night. The neighbors say
that the children from that house are permitted to go out and play with other
children and it is feared that the disease may be spread in this manner.
Dr. JC King, City Health
Commissioner said last night that he had not heard the quarantine was being
disobeyed in this case. He stated that the Ferguson family had shown itself to
be especially desirous of paying strict attention to the quarantine rules and
said he would investigate the matter in the morning.”
Dr. King made a full
investigation of the charges preferred and found them groundless. The only
fault the doctor had to find was in the existence of an outhouse, which was
unsanitary and this he had ordered abated, his instruction being carried
out.
A few weeks later more
members of the family came down with smallpox. “W.M. Ferguson, Mrs. Ferguson
and their three children, Minnie, Earl, and Harry, a baby who live at 722 West
First Street were found to be suffering from Smallpox yesterday [March 22] and
were taken to the hospital. Mrs. Ira Blanchard and her sister Grace Evans and
son Clarence who lived at No. 7 Denver Court were also taken out later in the
day. All cases are mild. Other members of both families have heretofore been
afflicted with the disease. Mr. Blanchard and Fred Ferguson having been
released from the hospital about two weeks ago.
531 West Second
South
John F W Vogel “restaurant
keeper”
John F W Vogel operated
a restaurant at this address and resided also at the same location in 1896. The
1897 city directory no longer lists John Vogel.
Rachel Kilpatrick
Woodward “restaurant keeper”
Rachel Kilpatrick
Woodward [1838-1911], widow of Melvin Woodward, was listed as residing 346
South Third [Fourth [Fifth]] West but in 1899 she was residing at 263 South
Fifth [West] which was the old Sullivan House hotel.
By the 1900 Federal
census she was listed as a 61-year-old “restaurant keeper and widow. She had 5
children but only 1 was living in 1900, Wallace Woodward. Her household at 531
West Second South contained were three female “servants” who were her waitresses
and cook. Two young male boarders, ages 22 and 19 also lived at this address
and the 1900 city directory stated she kept a boarding house also.
In 1901 the City
directory listed her as Mrs. Rachael L Woodward proprietor of “Woodward’s New
Home Restaurant” at 531 West 2nd South. “Short Orders at all hours,
Regular dinner from 12 to 2 p.m. Open Day and Night. One and a half Blocks east
of R.G.W Depot.” Mrs. Woodward was gone by 1902 and had moved to Los Angeles
California to live with her son, where she died.
Samuel H Willard
The City Directory also
listed the Golden Gate Drug Company at this address in 1899. Samuel “Sam” H.
Willard was the owner of the drug store and he sold “ Toilet articles,
Perfumes, Cigars, etc. Sample room in the rear.” He resided at this
address.
513 West Second South
A vacant section was
between 531 West and the eastern parcel at the Northeast Court of Lot Six
of about one hundred feet. At 513 West there was a one-story brick dwelling
located on a trapezoid shape plot.
Claude Gaylord “Druggist”
This address was mentioned in 1891 in an altercation
between Claude Gaylord who resided at this address and “T.W. Wampler, the
lawyer-miner” who “allowed his temper to get the best of his judgment” when he
“slapped the face of Claude Gaylord, an attaché of the drug firm of W.S. Laymon
and Company doing business at the Rio Grande depot.”
“Mr. Gaylord who is the
scion of a most respectable family, living at 513 West second South Street
swore to a complaint charging Wampler with assault and battery.”
The Sullivans Family
In 1892 the house was
the residence of a group Sullivans namely, Dennis A Sullivan [1864-1944] a
fireman for the fire department lived here but in 1893 he had moved to First
South where he was listed as a “ladder man Aerial truck SLLCFD”. In 1895 he was
31 years old when he married.
Miss Julia Sullivan
boarded at this address in 1892 and 1893, as did Michael J Sullivan, a city
policeman 1892-1893 who moved to San Francisco in 1894.
Patrick J Sullivan, a
pipefitter for Engine Company No 2 SLC Fire Department was said to
resided there in 1892to 1893 and while there was the main occupant. He was made
captain in the fire department in 1894 moved to Second West.
In 1895 a news account
stated he broke his collar bone “Patrick Sullivan of the West Side department
met with a painful accident in going to the scene” of a grease fire at the Utah
Soap factory on Forth North between Third and Forth West. “When the hose wagon
was leaving the house, he attempted to climb over the seat and was thrown to
the ground, breaking a collar bone.” By 1895 all these Sullivans had
moved away.
Louis MacKert “Boiler
Maker”
The family of Louis and
Josephine MacKert lived here in 1897 when they held the funeral of their infant
daughter aged 2 months at their residence. They had married in 1896 and the
baby was their first child. He was a boilermaker for the Rio Grande Western and
had moved in that year from Eighth West. The 1898 city directory showed them at
this address. They moved away by 1899 to Seattle, Washington.
James Sinnett “Railroad
engineer”
The Household of James
Sinnett [1853-1933] consisting of a wife, two grown children ages 20 and 17 and
a 32-year-old Engineer lodger resided at this address in 1900. He was
living at 204 South Fourth [Fifth] West in 1899. He was a Welshman. He and his
teenage son were railroad laborers. His son became a Salt Lake fireman. The
family had moved away by 1908.
204 South Fourth [Fifth]
West Street
This house was located
at the corner of Second South and Fourth [Fifth] West facing Fourth [Fifth]
West. It was a one-story brick home according to the 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map.
Frank Boggs Railroad
Engineer
The 1900 federal census
listed a 36-year-old railroad engineer for the Rio Grande Western Railroad
named Frank Boggs and his wife residing at this address but was not listed in
the 1899 city directory. Boggs was renting the residence. Two brothers Stace
Woodward, a 25-year-old boiler maker and Robert Woodward a 19-year-old day
laborer also lived within this household. The Boggs family was still residing
at this address in 1901 however by 1903 Dr. Hazel owner of the Hazel Drugstore
at 501 West First South was residing here.
210 South Fourth [Fifth]
West Street
The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance
Map showed a one-story brick dwelling at this address.
Emil Hartung “Machinist”
Emil Hartung, a native
of Germany lived at this address in 1895. He was a machinist for the Rio Grande
and Western Railway. In 1894 and 1896, he roomed at 248 South Fourth [Fifth]
West probably with the widow Susan Chamberlin.
Martin Smith “butcher”
Martin Smith and his
family of a wife and three children resided at this address according to the
1900 federal census. He was a 45-year-old native of Indiana and a butcher by
trade who moved to Utah from Kansas. They were renting the house.
214 South Fourth [Fifth]
West Street
Henry
Josiah Rudy
A
one-story brick dwelling at this address was the residence of Henry Josiah Rudy [1826-1910]. Nathan J Lang
[1837-1909] sold to Rudy his portion of Lot Six in 1879.
220 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
A wooden one-story
dwelling was built at this address.
William Godfrey Gane
“Jeweler”
The 1900 federal census
listed William Godfrey Gane, a 33-year-old immigrant from England, renting this
address with a wife Minnie [1873-1955], and daughter five-year-old daughter
Esther. His occupation was that of a “jeweler” although he had been a
locomotive engineer.
William G Gane died at
Holy Cross hospital yesterday [24 February 1902] from the effects of an ulcer
on the stomach. Mr. Gane had suffered considerably prior to the time Dr. Root
took him in hand and had him removed to the hospital. It was the found that the
ulcer had broken through the stomach and the contents of the organ percolated
into the abdominal cavity. An operation was performed and for a time the
patient gave signs of ultimate recovery, but the infection was apparently too
much for him with the result above stated.”
“Mr. Gane for a number
of years was well known in this state as a railroad engineer. For some time,
past, he had been operating a jewelry store and watch maker’s store at 543 West
Second South, Salt Lake.”
“The funeral of William
Godfrey Gane was held yesterday [27 February 1902] from the Masonic Hall and
was one of the largest funerals ever held by the Masons in Salt Lake. The
Funeral was under the auspices of Argenta lodge No. 3 with Worshipful Master
N.W. Hewett in charge. There was an abundance of flowers among which was a
floral emblem in the form of an engine-driver given by the B. and L. E.”
His wife married in Utah
but moved back to Kansas. According to the 1910 federal census she was married
to an “undertaker” named M.E. Coleman. She must have divorced as she was back
in Salt Lake City in 1914 with her daughter Esther living at 253 South Sixth
East listed as a Seamstress and widow of William G Gane.
The 1915 state census of
Kansas listed William G. Gane’s widow remarried to a Thomas McMahon. Gane’s
only child, Esther Gane died in 1917 in Kansas. Esther’s obituary stated she
came to Ellis Kansas 1 November 1914 and died from an operation she had.
Chapter Seventeen
Lot 7 & 8 Block 63 Plat A
The entirety of
Lot Seven was owned by William Aryton and his wife, who built a two-story adobe
dwelling separated by 80 feet from its neighbor to the north and 66 feet from a
neighbor on the south. It was the only residence on the entire lot.
Street Addresses for Lot
Seven Block 63 Plat A
230 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
William Ayrton
“gardener”
In 1860 William Ayrton
[1827-1902] purchased the entire one and a quarter acre of Lot Seven from the
widow of Washington N Cook. His residency however was not in Block 63 but
rather in Block 65 to the northeast.
The 1880 federal census
enumerated William Ayrton as the 21st household in the Fifteen Ward
residing on Third South Street with his wife Elizabeth and 9-year-old son
David. His occupation was given as “farm laborer” although he was a gardener by
profession. His widowed sister Jane Tennant and nephew Thomas Tennant resided
in the same household. Nearby lived the widow of Joseph Chamberlin at household
24 and Shure Olson, the Norwegian Carpenter.
The 1883 city directory listed Ayrton on the north side
of First South between Third South and Fourth [Fifth] West. In 1887 he
transferred his interest in the entire lot to his wife Elizabeth Aryton for
$1.
Also, in 1887 William
Ayrton sued his nephew Thomas Tennant to recover $930 due him for the care
and substances of defendant’s mother, Jane Tennant, “who for many years past,
has not been of sound mind.” Tennant set up a counter claim for rent due from
Ayrton and charged “gross negligence and brutality.’
Third District Court
Judge [Charles] Zane found for Ayrton for “board “of his sister, and for
the Tennant for “rent.” Judge Zane said, “It seems to have been purely a family
affair, and one that should properly have been settled outside of the court
room.”
By 1888 William Ayrton
was residing at 230 South Fourth [Fifth] West back in Block 63 on Lot Seven,
according to the city directory.
Aryton was in
trouble in 1895 for being an owner of fruit trees infested with pests and
not complying with “fruit tree laws” and failing to disinfect their trees after
having been notified. He was fined $100 but given thirty days to comply with
the law and the fine would be suspended.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
insurance Map showed an adobe dwelling on the property with the northern half
of the house being two stories. Two the southwest on the property was a one and
a half tall building with the address 230 ½ South possibly a barn the
1900 federal census listed William Ayrton his wife and son living at this
address. His occupation was a gardener.
Ayrton died in 1902.
“William Aryton, an old resident of this city, died at his home in the
Fifteenth Ward, yesterday at the age of 75 years. He came here in 1856.”
His son David James
Ayrton [1870-1937] married Helen Holding [1875-1948] daughter of Ephraim George
Holding, the electrician, who lived at 164 South Fourth [Fifth] West.
Lot 8 Block 63 Plat A
Joseph Chamberlin and his
wife Emma sold this lot to their son James Thomas Chamberlin [1847-1889] in
1874 for $3000. The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed one single dwelling
on the lot of 10 rods by 20 rods. By 1898 however two additional residences had
been built south of the original dwelling. This lot was not developed
commercially until the Twentieth Century when the west half of the lot, ten
rods by ten was sold to the Western Macaroni Manufacturing Company
Street Addresses for Lot
Eight Block 63 Plat A
244 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
James Thomas Chamberlin
“sheep rancher”
James Thomas Chamberlin
resided at the address of 244 South Fourth [Fifth] West. In 1884 he was listed
as a stockman and in 1888 when he was listed in the city directories as a
“sheep rancher’. He died in 1889 of blood poisoning and his wife Susan
continued living at this address for the remainder of the next decade. By 1910
however she had moved to 258 South Fourth [Fifth] West and gave her occupation
as land lady renting houses on her property. .
The front half of the house at 244 was two
stories made of adobe bricks while back half was a one-story wooden structure.
The wooden portion was plastered on the outside of the dwelling. Behind the
house by 56 feet was a 2-story building numbered 244 ½ South possibly a barn.
248 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
Mrs. Susan Chamberlin
“widow of James T. Chamberlain
In 1890 Mrs. J. T.
Chamberlin was listed at this address and had a four-room brick house built for
$1000. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed on a one-story wooden
dwelling at this address.
Emil Hartung “Machinist”
Emil Hartung, a native
of Germany who was a machinist for the Rio Grande and Western Railway
roomed from 1894 through 1896, at 248 South Fourth [Fifth] West probably with
the widow Susan Chamberlin.
Sylvanus Smeltzer
In 1900 50-year-old Sylvanius Smeltzer and his
wife lived at this address.
258 South Fourth [Fifth]
West Second South
William McCready “train
car carpenter”
A one-story brick
dwelling was built at this address occupied by William McCready and his son
Dana McCready in 1900. McCready was a carpenter for the Rio Grande and Western
Railway.
A daughter of James
Thomas Chamberlin, Lulu Chamberlin also was living at this address when she
died in 1935. She was a 51-year-old unmarried librarian. Her mother Susan
Chamberlin lived at this address when she died in 1940.
Chapter Eighteen
Lot One Block 64 Plat A
Lot One was located at
the southeast corner of Block 64, running north 330 feet along Fourth [Fifth]
West and 165 feet west along Second South. Lot
One was owned by Jasper Conrad [1845-1917], who inherited it from his
widowed mother the original owner. Margaret C Wilkinson Conrad [1807-1869], in
1862, traveled with the Mormon Emigration Company of James S Brown to
Utah with three of her children, Walter, Jasper, and Tacy . After arriving, as
a widow, she received all of Lot 1 in Block 64 and lived here with her
family until moving to Logan, Utah where she died.
Conrad began selling
parts of Lot One in 1875. He sold to fellow Mormon William Hiskey a parcel of
land 4 rods [66 feet] by 10 rods [165 Feet] for $525. In 1879 Conrad sold another portion of
Lot One to George Washington Lufkin [1831-1922] property commencing
at the southeast corner consisting of 6 rods [99 feet] then west 10 rods [165
feet].
The 1880 Federal Census
recorded Conrad as being the 142nd household in the Fifteenth Ward as a “clerk
in dry goods store” still residing at on Fourth [Fifth] West Street. His
neighbor to the north at Household 141 was Benjamin P Brown. George W. Lufkin
was his neighbor directly to the south.
In January 1882 he presented a petition to the city
council along with “thirty-six other residents along the line and in the
vicinity of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway running from the depot of the
Utah and Nevada Railway [Block 62] representing that the said temporary track
was detrimental to the property along its line, depreciating the value thereof;
that it was a hindrance to travel, an eyesore and a general discomfort to the
people.”
“ That the Council
originally granted the use of the streets for the track for a period of six
months; that said period had long since elapsed ; that the object for which the
track was laid had been accomplished, and that the company had no further
apparent use for it that to transport one car load of coal per day to the Salt
Lake City Gas works, which could easily be done on the permanent track of said
Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company on Sixth West [Seventh West] street
which intersects the Utah and Nevada Railway on South temple Street.”
“The petitioners
therefore earnestly hoped that the Council would cause the track aforesaid to
be removed without delay. Referred to the committee on Streets and
Alleys.”
The committee approved
the petition to remove the tracks however the Rio Grande appealed the decision;
and even after 96 more people signed another petition demanding the council
enforce their previous decision, the tracks remained on Fourth [Fifth]
West and remained there for nearly one hundred years.
Conrad was still
operating a dry goods store, as the 1884 City Directory listed his
residence as being at 156 South Fourth [Fifth] West having a “store”. He
remarried in that year and as the railroad tracks began to encumber Fourth
[Fifth] West , perhaps this may have been a reason Jasper Conrad would move
from Fourth [Fifth] West by 1886.
William Hiskey
[1841-1909] was noted in the 1879 city directory as being a conductor on the Utah
Southern Railroad residing on the east side of third West
between Second and Third South. The 1880 federal census enumerated Hiskey as
living in the Fifteenth Ward as household 201. He was a 39-year-old railroad
conductor and native of Pennsylvania. His family consisted of a wife and four children all who were born
in Utah.
The 1888 city directory stated he was a conductor for the Utah Southern Railway
living at 215 South Third [Fourth] West
He lived on the site in 1890 to 1895 that was numbered as 156 South
Fourth [Fifth] West
In 1880 Hiskey may never
have lived in Block 64 but sold a portion of the property for $400 to a
business man named Jabez William West [1858-1925]. This property was located
111 ½ feet north of the southeast corner of Lot 1.
West had emigrated to
America in 1863 and then came to Salt Lake where he became a. prosperous
businessman and a member of the firm of Knight and Company, “wholesale meat
merchants”.
Jabez W. West in 1883
sold this property to Ephraim G. Holding for $1350 which consisted of 3
rods [49 feet six inches] along Fourth [Fifth] West then west 8 rods [132
feet]. This property eventually was given the address of 164 South.
In 1879 Jasper Conrad
sold to George Washington Lufkin [1831-1922] a portion of his property in Lot 1 commencing
at the southeast corner consisting of 6 rods [99 feet] then west 10 rods [165
feet]. The following year sold 4 rods
[66 feet] by 10 rods [165] of the lot to Jabez W. West in 1880 for $400 and
later West and his wife Martha then sold his property to
John S. Barnes for $12,000.
George W. Lufkin was a
farmer according to the 1880 federal census. His family was enumerated living
in the 113th dwelling in the Fifteenth Ward of Salt Lake City next to Jasper
Conrad. The 1883 city directory listed Lufkin as a farmer residing on the
Northwest corner of Second South and Fourth [Fifth] West.
A newspaper article from
1883 stated, “Mrs. George W. Lufkin, of the Fifteenth Ward was the lucky holder
of the number which drew the Studebaker Langtry Cart at the Catholic Fair. The
Cart is one of the handsomest vehicles of the kind ever seen in the west and
does credit alike to the skill and generosity of the Studebaker Manufacturing
Company.”
The 1888 city directory
listed Lufkin as a contractor residing at 506 West Second South.
In 1891 George W Lufkin sold part of Lot One
Block 64 plat A to Fred Roberts the junk man for $350. Lufkin eventually moved
to Logan Utah where he died.
The former George W.
Lufkin property once sold became commercial property with a two-story boarding
house built on .
In 1889 John S Barnes
split the property into two parcels and sold one to Hugh Anderson for $6000 and
another to Augustus R. Carter for $3000.
John S. Barnes with
Anderson and Carter then sold to George Cullens and Frank W. Ross 10 rods [165
feet] by 111 ½ feet commencing at the Southeast corner of lot one
at Fourth [Fifth] West and Second South for $7,500. George Cullins a
widower then sold the property to his niece Augusta L Scott for $10,000
in 1897. Cullins died in 1899 in Chicago, Illinois.
“The remains of the Late
George Cullins who died in Chicago Tuesday [24 Jan 1899] will arrive here over
the Rio Grande Western on Sunday Morning and will be taken to the Masonic Hall
where service will be held in the afternoon by Utah Commandery No. 1 Knights of
Templar of which the deceased was a standard bearer for twenty-five years. Mr.
Cullins was a California pioneer and a worthy representative of that noble
band. He followed mining in one form or another nearly all of his life and was
successful in Utah and especially in Salt Lake he was widely known and
universally respected.”
Street Addresses for Lot
One Block 64 Plat A
146 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
One of the earlier
residences of Block 64 was that of Captain Benjamin Pierce Brown [1831-1905].
He came with his wife Rebecca Webb Brown [1837-1922] and daughter to Utah
in 1860 in Jesse Murphy Company where he served as a Captain of Ten. Her
obituary stated, “she crossed the plains by mule team in 1860, settling in
American Fork, coming to Salt Lake seven years later.”
In the 1869 directory of Salt Lake City Brown
was listed as a farmer living in the Fifteenth Ward at Fourth [Fifth] West
between First and Second South.
According to the 1880 federal census Brown was
one of only three families list living on the Fourth [Fifth] West side of Block
64. His family dwelling was number 111 and his occupation was given as a “ship
carpenter” with a wife and seven children between the ages of 19 and 4. All his
children were born in Utah. His neighbor to the south was Jasper Conrad at the
corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and Second South and to the north Henry
Moore at the corner of Fourth [Fifth] [Fifth] West and First South.
The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed that
146 South was in the northern portion of Lot One. The home on the property in
1889 was a one-story adobe structure with some wooden additions to it. with an
easement north of the residence west into the interior of Block 64 that
connected with the George W. Boyd easement that went south to Second South
Street. In 1901 gave a warranty deed to Benjamin P Brown for part of Lot
Two Block 64 plat A for $50 that contained this easement.
A Salt Lake Herald article form 25 December 1889
listed building permits for “The Structures Raised the Present Year” stating
that “over Two Million Dollars in New Buildings and Additions. The article
listed permits by city Wards and Benjamin P. Brown was listed among those in
the Fifteenth Ward. He had a brick residence built at the cost of $4,000 and a
brick store for $500. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed a one-story
brick dwelling on the property however the easement to the north into the
interior of Block 64 had been eliminated.
The 1890 city directory listed Benjamin P Brown
him as a farmer and in that year, [1 Jan 1890] “B.P. Brown 146 South Fourth
[Fifth] West brick house, nine-room $3000.”
In August 1895 Benjamin P. Brown’s wife Rebecca
Webb was listed as one of four women delegates from the Fifteenth ward to
the Democratic County Convention. Among the thirteen men were James Hegney,
Thomas P Lewis, Ephraim G Holding, and William H. Chamberlin. At a meeting of
Democratic Women in September 1895 women from the Second Precinct that
were part of the Committee of One Hundred included Mrs. B.P Brown, Mrs. Ephraim
G Holding, Mrs. Alice Butterworth, and Mrs. Martha Baldwin
The Browns continued to be active in
Democratic politics and in 1900 their home was used as a place where a
Democratic caucus was held.
The 1900 federal census showed that the home was
still the residence of Benjamin Pierce Brown along with his wife and two
adult children. He was still living at this 146 South in 1902 but by 1904
Benjamin P Brown had moved to Thirteenth South and Tenth East where he died
in 1905 at the age of 74 years. His will oddly described his property in
Block 64 as being in Lot 2 and not Lot 1
154 South and 156 Fourth
[Fifth] West
Jasper Conrad may have
been operating a dry goods store here as the 1884 City Directory listed his
residence as 156 South Fourth [Fifth] West having a “store”.
James Perry Freeze
Conrad in 1884 sold to
James P Freeze, [1834-1919] a polygamist married to four women and “well-known
merchant and proprietor of the Thirteenth Ward Co-op,” The parcel commenced at
4 rods [66 feet] and three feet from the northeast corner of lot 1, south 100
feet and west 10 rods.
In 1889 James and
Mary Freeze sold to B.S. Young for $5600 the same property. B. S. Young and his
wife Harriett turned around and sold to Harriet A. Partridge wife of Thomas W.
Partridge a portion of Lot One for $5600. The 1890 city directory listed
B.S. Young as being in real estate.
Harriett A Partridge was
listed in many real estate transactions in the early 1890s. In 1890 Partridge
sold this property to R. B. Whittmore for $10,000.
A man named Joseph R.
Walker with others sold to R. B. Whittemore part of Lot 1 in 1895 for $1 which
may have been for a right of way.
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a small brick dwelling that was at the time vacant. In
1898 the home was given the address of 154 South, only twelve feet north
of 156 South.
Raffaello Mauro
The 1897 city directory
listed an Italian immigrant named “Raffaello” Mauro [1860-1931] at this
address, employed as a Carpenter. Raffaello “Ralph” Mauro must have left his
former residence at 156 South Fourth West where he had lived three years,
when Silas Rall moved into that residence. The 1898 directed listed him as
“Raffale Mauro” still residing at this address along with his 16-year-old son
John Mauro.
James H. Graham
The 1900 federal census
listed the family of James H. Graham at this address. He was a
fifty-four-year-old miner and native of Ohio. He was renting the house and
living there with his wife and twelve-year-old daughter who was born is South
Dakota.
156 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
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.
William Frederick Hiskey
The 1890 city directory
showed that William F Hiskey [1841-1909] had moved from Third [Fourth] West to
156 South Fourth [Fifth] West. His occupation was still that of “conductor. At
this address were boarding his son 17-year-old son Claude W. Hiskey, a
clerk for the Union Pacific and a Miss Maude M Hiskey. In 1890 an
ad was placed for a girl “to do Kitchen work No washing. Good
wages.”
The 1892 City Directory
listed William F Hiskey still at this address, his occupation however being
a “sheep man”. His son Claude W Hiskey was also listed at this address as
a weight master for the Union Pacific Railway. It was about this time William
Hiskey started having financial troubles as that he defaulted on a note
for $2100, losing some property to a Sheriff Sale. Additionally in 1895 William
Hiskey was sued by Alice Butterworth, the wife of Edmond Butterworth for $186
which he “failed to satisfy”. He was owed money from the Union Pacific Railroad
but as the company was in the hand of “receivers and not subject to
garnishment,” he could not get money to pay his debts.
By 1896 both William F
Hiskey and Claude W Hiskey had moved away to 43 Summerby [Somerby] located near
700 West and Fifth South in Salt Lake where William was listed as a
Laborer.
The 1900 federal census
enumerated William Hiskey and his family as living in the community of
Batesville in Tooele County where he owned a farm.
By 1901 William Hiskey’s
wife Nellie had left him and was living back in Salt Lake City. The 1902 city
directory listed her as the widow of William F Hiskey although he did not
die until 1909. She would eventually move to Oakland California with her grown
children.
William Hiskey must have
become estranged from his family and by 1909 he was in Allentown, Pennsylvania
where he had relatives. He was trying to find work as a farm laborer when he
became depressed and committed suicide.
“Despondent and morose
ever since his return from Oakland, Cal., several weeks ago, William Hiskey
early yesterday [27 June 1909] morning committed suicide in the barn of
Jeremiah Berger, at Centerville.”
“Hiskey after spending
the last 32 years-two years on the coast, came to this city several weeks ago
and while here stopped at the home of C H Dankel No. 239 South Fifth Street.”
“Suicide Caused by Heat.
Allentown, PA June 27. Suffering physically and mentally from the effects of
the heat , William Hiskey age 62, formerly of Oakland Cali. Committed suicide
today by hanging. His widow lives in Oakland.”
None of the reports of
his death mentioned that he ever lived in Utah which he had since at least
1870. His death certificate stated he had hung himself in a barn of Matt Berger
and that he was a “railroader”.
“The remains of William
Hiskey aged 67 years, formerly of this city, [Allentown] who committed suicide
by hanging himself in a barn on the farm of Matt Berger at East Macungle, early
Sunday morning, were shipped to the State Anatomical Board by Undertaker
Wonderly.”
“The body was held
at the morgue of the undertaker, awaiting some word from the family. Evidently,
they did not want anything to do with the remains of their father, and as a
consequence they were shipped to the state board.”
A month after his
death his body was given a proper burial due to the efforts of his niece. “The
body of William Hiskey , who committed suicide at Macungle several weeks ago,
has been interred in a Philadelphia cemetery through the efforts of Miss Katie
Dankel, a niece, residing at No. 239 South fifth Street, this city [Allentown].
Miss Dankel after a vain effort to have the remains buried by relatives in this
section, telegraphed to the dead man’s son, Earl Hiskey, at Oakland,
California, who sent word that the money would be transmitted. This was done,
and the body which had already been turned over to the Anatomical Board at
Philadelphia, was identified and reclaimed by Miss Danke, and given a proper
burial.”
Raffaello Mauro
Raffaello Mauro
[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
through 1896, Raffaello Mauro was listed at this address as car repairer for
the Rio Grande Western Railway. He moved from this address in 1897 to the small
brick home at 154 South.
Silas Rall
Silas Rall’s
family lived at this address after Raffaello Maura moved out. Silas D
Rall [1840-1921], was a Union Civil War veteran, having served in the Union
Army; 45th Iowa Infantry, Company D. The City Directory for Salt Lake in 1900
he was listed as a contractor having a business at 572 West Second South and
residing at 156 South Fourth [Fifth] West. Boarding at the same location was
his son William E Rall who listed his occupation as a carpenter.
In 1899 The Westminster
Ladies Aid Society held meetings at the home of Mrs. Rall. Ralls moved by June
1900 to 176 South Sixth [Seventh] West and later to Los Angeles, California by
1910 where he died in Huntington Beach, Orange County, California.
Mary C Phelps “daughter
in law of W.W. Phelps”
The 1900 federal census
listed the family of Mary C Phelps [1846-1918] living at this address. She was
brought to Utah as an 8-year-old child as part of the Milo Andrus Hand Cart
Company in 1855. She was a native of Scotland who had fourteen children, by Henry
Enon Phelps [1828-1901] the son of William Wines Phelps, an early leader in the
Mormon Church. She was listed as a married woman and no occupation was given to
her. The 1900 city directory said she was the widow of Henry Phelps.
Her husband however had
been committed to the Provo hospital in January 1900 having been “recent an
inmate of the County infirmary, 71 years of age , and a pioneer of ’48, came in
as gentle and harmless as a child. His mind appeared to be almost blank, and
the testimony of Pauper Clerk Sabine and the old man’s wife went to show that
he was incapable of looking after himself, that he wandered away and got lost,
and was in fact an imbecile. Clerk Dunbar was averse to sending him to Provo
and suggested that his children ought to look after him, but as none of them
seemed inclined to do it, he was committed. The physicians described his malady
as senile debility.”
Henry E Phelps obituary
read, “an old pioneer and early identified with the history of the Mormon
church, died in the Provo insane asylum yesterday [2 March 1901] of
apoplexy.” He became “erratic and lost his mind over a year ago, and had
to be sent to Provo, where he was a very tractable patient.”
Six children of
Mary C. Phelps were residing with her at this address in 1900, ranging in age
from thirty to fourteen. Her son “Ferril” [Pharaoh Alfred] Phelps [1870-1958]
worked as at railroad fireman. Howard Edward Phelps [1876-1948] was a
“stationary engineer.” Joshua Alma Phelps [1879-1943] was a delivery man, and
seventeen-year-old George Arthur Phelps [1882-1952] was a student. The
daughters in the household were Lillian Phelps [1874-1939] and Alice Phelps
[1886-1976]
The family must have
just recently moved to this home as the 1900 city directory listed their
address at 230 Graeber Avenue. The 1901 city directory listed George A, Joshua
A, Lillian A., P. [Pharoah] A and Mary C Phelps all at the address of 156 South
Fourth [Fifth] West.
George Phelps was a
clerk in the Godbe-Pitts Drug Store, Joshua Phelps was a clerk in the I Cline
and Brothers store, and “P.A.” Phelps was a fireman for the Rio Grande Western
Railway. Lillian was “boarding” at the address, and Mary Phelps was listed as
the widow of “A. G.” Phelps however the 1902 directory listed her as the widow
of Henry E Phelps. George Phelps was now in 1902 working as a candy maker or
the Kolitz Kandy Kitchen. Joshua was a “fireman for the Alcatraz Asphalt Paving
Company, and Pharoah was still a Fireman for the Rio Grande Western
Railway.
Joshua Phelps may have been
the man who had smallpox in 1900 during the outbreak of the disease among
residents of the Rio Grande District. “Joshua Phelps who was take to the pest
house Monday [January 29], telephoned to the Tribute last night that he was
sent to the pest house in Butte on January 9th on account of being
afflicted with smallpox and that he was dismissed on the 19th bas being cured, He is afflicted with the same eruption now he
says, from which he suffered then, and if his ailment is small pox now he has
been so disease twice in the same month. He had his clothing and bedding burned
at Butte, but he has not stocked up heavily since his lost here has been light.
He denies that the doctors found him on the street and states that he hunted up
the doctors to report his ailment.
164 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map Sanborn Fire Insurance Map recorded this residence as a one-story
brick dwelling on this parcel with address of 164 South. Towards the back of
the parcel was a 1 story wooden structure most likely a barn or shed. The 1898
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map recorded the same brick home on this parcel however
at the back of the parcel a 1 story building label “junk” that had a corrugated
iron roof replaced the one-story barn.
This may have been the
residence of Jasper Conrad who according to the 1880 Federal Census was
enumerated as household 112 in the Fifteenth Ward next to Benjamin P Brown. He
was a clerk in a dry goods store. The 1883 directory listed Conrad as residing
on the Westside of Fourth [Fifth] West between First South and Second South. He
is not listed in the 1888 directory and had moved away.
Ephraim George Holding
“Electrician”
Ephraim George Holding
bought this parcel from Jabez W. West in 1883 for $1350. The land description
was six rods [99 feet] and twelve feet from the Southeast corner of Lot
1. Jabez W. West was a butcher who owned several meat markets and had
bought the property from William Hiskey in 1880. Neither man lived on the
property but probably bought it as an investment.
The 1888 Salt Lake City
Directory listed this address as the home of Ephraim G Holding [1849-1927] who
was one of the first electricians in city and was a member of the Mormon
People’s Party.
At the age of four,
Ephraim Holding immigrated to Utah from England, with his parent’s family in
1853. They traveled with the Cyrus H. Wheelock Company but returned to England
in 1854. He was living in England in 1870. However, Holding returned to Salt
Lake by 1872 when he married. He became the father of eleven children all
reared at this address on Fourth [Fifth] West.
A newspaper article
mentioned Ephraim Holding that he was an electrician. “Ever since he began the
construction of a telegraph line for the Deseret Telegraph company in 1880, Mr.
Holding had been engaged in the electrical business.”
He then went to work
installing telephone lines. In 1881 Holding was working in Park City “where he
spent five weeks in the employ of the telephone company. Mr. holding reports
having set in operation twenty-nine instruments and has orders for ten
more.” An article from 1884 stated that Holding was by then the manager
of the Central office of the Salt Lake Exchange for the Rocky Mountain Bell
Telephone. He became the first manager for the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone
company but resigned to enter the electrical business for himself in 1887.”
The 1888 city directed
listed Holding’s business as selling “electrical house furnishing supplies.”
The 1900 federal census
listed Holding still at this address with a wife Mary and nine children at
home. His occupation was given as an electrician. His wife “Mary Jane Holding”
became trained as a nurse and worked at what later became the LDS Hospital. It
was here while on duty that she learned that her fourteen-year-old son,
Franklin Holding had been “run over by a train and his legs were severed. He
his legs cut off by an Oregon Short Line freight train. “She remained by
his beside day and night to be sure he survived but she exhausted herself and became
ill. She died at home on November 26, 1902.”
As that the demography
of the neighborhood had changed considerably the family had moved away by 1908
and the place became a Greek Rooming House in 1910.
His eldest daughter
Helena Holding [1875-1948] married David Ayrton [18701937] the son of William
Ayrton.
Ephraim Holding’s
obituary was printed in the Deseret News, July 7, 1927. “PIONEER ELECTRIC
MERCHANT PASSES-Constructed Telegraph Line in Early Days of State. E. G.
Holding proprietor of the E. G. Holding Electric company, Utah handcart pioneer
and pioneer in the electrical industry in Utah. Mr. Holding was injured when
struck by a streetcar in San Diego, Calif., March 29, and had never entirely
recovered. However, he retained direction of his business as president and
manager of the electrical company until a few days before his death.”
“He was born Sept. 15,
1849, in Chester, England, and was brought to America by his parents who also
crossed the plains to Utah by handcarts in 1854. The family returned to England
in 1856, following the death of Mr. Holding's father, the family again returned
to Utah in 1870.”
506 West Second South
Located at the Southeast
corner of the southern half of Lot One was a two-story dwelling of a mix of
adobe and wood that was built before 1889.
In 1884 Jasper Conrad
sold to John S Barnes, a mining speculator a parcel commencing from the
southeast corner going west 10 rods [165 feet] and then north 111 ½ feet. This
would have entailed the entire frontage of Second South of Lot 1 and the corner
southeast corner of Block 64. John S. Barnes sold an interest in the
parcel to August R. Carter. The partners in 1889 sold the corner parcel to
business partners George Cullins and Frank W. Ross for $7500. John Shaw Barnes died
in 1890 age 67.
George Cullins, who is
deed records was listed as widower, in 1897sold to Augusta L Scott the parcel
for $10,000.
George W. Lufkin
“Farmer”
This was the residence
of George W. Lufkin [1831-1922] a farmer according to the 1880 federal census.
His family was enumerated living in the 113th dwelling in the Fifteenth Ward of
Salt Lake City next to Jasper Conrad. The 1883 city directory listed Lufkin as
a farmer residing on the Northwest corner of Second South and Fourth [Fifth] West.
A newspaper article from
1883 stated, “Mrs. George W. Lufkin, of the Fifteenth Ward was the lucky holder
of the number which drew the Studebaker Langtry Cart at the Catholic Fair. The
Cart is one of the handsomest vehicles of the kind ever seen in the west and
does credit alike to the skill and generosity of the Studebaker Manufacturing
Company.
The 1888 city directory
listed Lufkin as a contractor residing at 506 West Second South. In 1891 George
W Lufkin sold part of Lot One Block 64 plat A to Fred Roberts the junk man for
$350. Lufkin eventually moved to Logan Utah where he died.
William J Callahan
“Boiler Maker”
In 1891 the location was that of William J Callahan’s
Boarding House. The 1890 city directory listed Callahan [1864-1917] as a boilermaker
for the Rio Grande Western Shops and boarding at 645 West South Temple. In 1892
he was back to being a boilermaker residing at 50 Euclid Street. He
eventually moved to Eureka, Utah and then back to Chicago.
In 1895 a list was
compiled by the Oquirrh Club of Republicans canvassed names of men that were
not on the Registration Books. There were 23 males lodging at this address
according to the newspaper account.
Adam Mack Little
“Contractor”
By 1897 the family of Adam Mack Little [1850-1917] moved
to this address where his wife Margaret Prather Little [1855-1916] ran a
boarding house. They were natives of Georgia and converts to Mormonism. His
obituary started he came to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1889. He as “widely known
as a contractor and builder.”
The 1900 federal census
enumerated Adam Mack Little’s household as consisting of a wife, four children,
two servants, and five male boarders. The City Directory listed Mrs. Margaret
as the proprietor of the boarding House. The two female servants were
Cordelia “Delia” Smith and Dora Jesperson.
A newspaper article from
1900 stated that the family had contracted smallpox. “Smallpox Kept Quiet
A well-developed case of smallpox was reported yesterday from the family of
Mrs. Margaret Little of 506 West Second South Street. It was proven too, on
investigation that the family had long been suffering from smallpox but by
keeping it quiet they hoped to escape quarantine.”
“Exposure to Smallpox
Ten unreported cases Ran Their course Before Discovery That Smallpox is not
dreaded by some people is again evidenced by the latest case brought to the
knowledge of the health department. A little over a month again Miss Delia
Smith, residing at 506 West Second South Street became ill with what was
supposed to be chicken pox. No physician was called, and the case was not
reported for quarantine. A few days later Abraham M. Little, residing at the
same place was stricken with the same malady and since then Mrs. M. A Rearden,
her brother William Rhodes, Washington Rhodes, Mrs. M. E. Little, Alma Little,
Thomas Little May Little and Carrie Little, all residing in the same infected
house, have been sick with the eruptive disease.”
“But so secretive were
the stricken ones that it was not reported until Monday that the health
department had any knowledge of the cases.”
“The quarantine officer
Dr. Green made an investigation with the result that he unqualifiedly reported
that all of the persons named had been suffering from smallpox. Mrs. Little’s
condition was found to be very serious, and the entire household has been
quarantined .”
“Just how many persons
have been exposed to the disease by the infected families is a matter of doubt,
but certain it is that many new cases will developed from the ten which ran
their course without being reported for quarantine. Carey Little a boy of
16 became infected.”
The 1903 City Directory
listed Mrs. M.E. Little as running a boarding house. The family had moved
by 1908.
Chapter Nineteen
Lot Two Block 64 Plat A
The Second South
frontage of Lot Two was 10 rods [165 Feet] reaching 20 rods[330 feet] into the
interior . The lot was eventually divided into at least five parcels. The
northern one fourth of Lot Two was deeded to Benjamin Pearce Brown which was
adjacent to his property in Lot One at 146 South Fourth [Fifth] West.
In 1872 “Mary Brown” who
was the plural wife of Bishop Nathaniel V Jones had titled to four rods [ 66
feet] by 15 rods [247 feet 6 inches] of Lot two. Benjamin Pearce Brown
held the northern 5 rods of the property George W Boyd held 16 feet 6
inches of the western portion of Lot Two 20 rods [330 feet] into the interior
of Block 64.
According to the 1889
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map only two residential dwellings were located on Lot
Two with the addresses of 524 West and 534 West. They would have been the homes
of Mary E. Jones and her son in law William Henry Chamberlin.
There was a “private
alley” of about ten feet to the east of the home of Mary Jones at 524
West which allowed access into the interior of the lot. There was a
twenty-foot easement to the west of Mary E. Jones’s home which allowed access
into the interior of Lot Three.
In 1890 Mary E
Jones sold to Frederick Roberts a parcel of 5 rods [82 feet 6 inches] by 4 rods
[66 feet] for $2000. The Private Alley, by 1898 allowed access to a
home and barn located in the middle section of Lot Two with the addresses of
526 ½ West and 530 ½ West. This was the property of Fred Roberts.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed three addresses fronting Second South, 526, 530, and
534 [misidentified as 524]. There was thirty-eight-foot easement on the
west portion of Lot Two according to the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map which
provided an easement between Lot Two and Lot Three called “Boyd Avenue”. This
wide easement also allowed access too three row homes that the 1900 Census
named as being on a street called “Trecessa” and four row homes in Lot Three.
The row of one-story brick terrace homes on Trecassa” street were north of
534 West Second South according to the 1897 city directory.
In 1899 George W. Boyd
sold to Elizabeth Chamberlin 8 rods [132 feet] by forty feet from 87 feet west
of the southwest corner of lot 2 for $1500. He also sold to J. J. Corum 8
rods by 30 ½ feet from northeast from 47 feet west of southwest corner of Lot
Two for $1300.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed three addresses fronting Second South, 526, 530, and
534 [misidentified as 524].
Street Addresses for Lot
Two Block 64 Plat A
524-526 West Second
South
According to the 1889
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, a one-story adobe dwelling was located at the
address of 524 West. The 1898 does not list 524 West any longer having
renumbered the house as 526 West.
The addresses for Mary
E. Jones’ parcel of land in Lot Two seemed to have change over the years from
1880 to 1900. A private alley, directly to the east of this one-story
adobe dwelling at 526 West, gave access to junk yard that contained a one-story
wooden dwelling listed as 526 ½ West and to a two-story storage barn listed as
530 ½ West according to the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. The Junk Yard
certainly belonged to Frederick Roberts
In 1895, a newspaper
account listed George Werb as an employee of the Rio Grande Western railway
residing at 853 West Second South. He was then about 25 years old and
unmarried. However, the 1900 federal census listed George Werb’s family of a
wife and three children at this address of 526 West in the 1900 federal census.
He was a machinist by trade.
The 1901, and 1902 City
Directory listed him as “Werb” and a machinist for the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad. The 1903 listed him as “George Werb” machinist at 530 West and also
as George Werle machinist for D&RGRR residing at 528 West. The 1904 City
Directory listed George Werb employed by the D&RGRR at this address.
He was said to have been
an heir to a vast fortune in Germany. In 1906 he inherited one million
dollars from that inheritance. Whether he ever received the money is unknown.
He died in 1918 age 56.
526 ½ West and 530 ½
West Second South
In the interior of Lot
Two was a one-story wooden building listed as 526 ½ West accessed only by
a private alley easement just to the east of 526 West. This dwelling was in the
middle section of Lot Two and near it was a two-story storage barn at 530
½ West listed as “junk yard containing a two-story barn.”
By 1891 Fred Roberts
[1864-1902] was residing in the rear of at this address as a “junk dealer” where he operated a
“junk store” at this location buying scrap metal of all types. Roberts was a well-known
junk dealer and “for some years past had operated a foundry and junk shop at
242 State Street under the title of William Penders and Sons.” See Chapter
Seven Forgotten People
Effie Studebaker was a
widow with three children, and a servant according to the 1900 federal census
records living at this address which may have actually been 536 West. She moved
away by 1901. The City Directory for 1900 also listed Fred Roberts, a Junk Dealer,
residing in the rear of this address.
Additionally, the City
Directory listed Mrs. Amanda C. Arper as a dressmaker at this address along
with Edwin D Arper, a packer for the company of F.W. Hanson Produce. The
1901 City Directory showed that John Julius Jensen the Barber was residing at
this address.
In 1903 George Danby was
reported to have diphtheria while living at this address
530 West Second South
The address of 530 West
was not listed on the 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map but in 1891 a newspaper
account stated two “hobos”, William Ray, and William Morris, entered “the barn
of J. T. Adams at No 530 West Second South Wednesday night for the
purpose of sleeping” and “were convicted of trespass and sent to Dr. Raleigh’s
sanitary retreat for five days. Adams is not listed in the 1892 City directory
so he may have moved away.
The 1898 Sanborn Map
showed a one-story brick dwelling. Located behind it was a 2-story wooden
building in the junk yard with the address of 530 ½ West.
534 West Second South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a one-story brick dwelling located at this address next to
a twenty-foot easement to the interior of Block 64 where the Union Blacksmith
and Machine shop was located on Lot Three. The dwelling had a one-story
carpenter shop behind with the address of 534 1/3 West and a barn
numbered 534 ½ West entrance of Boyd Avenue
William Henry Chamberlin
[1849-1915] was the son in law of Mary E. Jones having married her daughter
Eliza Frances Brown in 1869. He was listed in the 1880 federal Census as a mine
owner living on Second South in the Fifteenth Ward of Salt Lake City. He also
was noted a “carpenter, contractor and builder.” A carpenter shop is shown on
the 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map behind this residence. The family dwelling
was the 115 enumerated between his mother-in-law, Mary E. Jones, the widow of
Bishop Nathaniel Jones and Abigail Boyd the wife of George W. Boyd.
In 1888 two men were
arrested for trespassing on Chamberlin’s property. “John Morley and James
Walker, two tramps, went sent up for fifteen days for trespassing. These are
the same fellows who recently visited the premises of W.H. Chamberlin, 354
[534] West Second South Street and stole from a tent in which a couple of
men were selling, a pair of socks and two pairs of shoes. They were arrested by
Officer Daniels after a brief search, and both were wearing the stolen items.”
In 1892 newspapers
reported, “W.H. Chamberlin, a man of long residence here, brother of the late
John W. Chamberlin, and a miner of experience, visited a mine his brother had
invested in.” Later in 1896 Chamberlin’s son James F Chamberlin applied for a
builders permit to build a row of terrace homes at 534 West Second South at the
cost of $2000.
William Henry Chamberlin
resided at the address until 1897 before moving away to East Mill Creek where
he became a fruit farmer. His son William H. Chamberlin Jr. was a
professor and had married a daughter of Mormon Apostle George Q
Cannon.
His son Ole Chamberlin
married a daughter of Jasper Conrad a pioneer of Block 64. Another son James F
Chamberlin married a niece of George Q Cannon. His son Ralph Vary Chamberlin
was a faculty member of the University of Utah for over 25 years, where he
helped establish the School of Medicine and served as its first dean.
An article regarding his
death stated, “W. H. Chamberlin, 68 years of age , who wandered from his home
in Mill Creek Friday afternoon , was found late Sunday in an orchard near his
home. Death had resulted from a stroke of apoplexy.”
His widow Eliza Frances
Brown Chamberlin died in 1930. Neither William H Chamberlin nor his wife had
obituaries, just funeral announcements.
Samuel Whitney Richards’
family, of a wife and two adult children, was enumerated in the 1900 federal
census at this address. Samuel W Richards [1824-1909 was a polygamist having
six wives and twenty-seven children. He was seventy-five years old in 1900 and
his occupation was given as “Ministerial laborer” and had a grown son was a
Railroad car repairman. He had been the Mormon “Mission President of the
Eastern States.
In 1897 he returned to
the Fifteenth Ward, where a reception was given to him to honor his return for
the eastern state mission. The Salt Lake City Herald mentioned that he was in
the year 1897 the only living member of Salt Lake’s first city government
organized in 1851. He was one of the eight councilors. Richards was listed in
the 1898 city director as living at this address.
The 1902 City Directory
said he was a carpenter and he had moved away from Second South.
536 West Second South
This address is not
located on the 1889 or 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. It may have been
renumbered 534 West as that the Chamberlin family had moved away from Second
South by 1897. In that year Warren and his son Willard Fosters resided at
this address. Warren Foster [1854-1909] “of Kansas” was the editor of the
Inter-Mountain Advocate and Willard was listed as a printer, boarding at the
same address. See Chapter Seven Forgotten People
Tricassa Terrace
In 1892 George W. Boyd
and his wife Abigail sold to businessman James Hegney a parcel on land
for $2200. The land description makes it appear that the property as where the
homes on Tricassa Terrace were built. The land sold was 9 yards [27 feet] east
of the southwest corner of Lot Three and north 9 rods [148 feet 6 inches.
The 1900 Federal Census
listed three one-story brick attached homes on a street named Tricassa located
in the interior of block 64. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map however showed
these triplexes as facing “Boyd Avenue” behind 524 West with access from a
38-foot easement from Second South Street between the addresses of 524 and 544
West. The 1899 city directory of streets and avenues listed that street
as being Tricassa Terrace –“runs south from 536 West Second South”. The city
directory listed “Boyd’s Terrace as “runs north from 544 West Second
South.
1 East Tricassa Terrace
The 1900 Federal census
enumerated a twenty-five-year-old railroad fireman named Edward D Bartlett living
at this address with his wife, daughter, and a spinster sister-in-law. The
family was living in Utah by 1897 when their daughter was born.
2 East Tricassa Terrace
Forty-one-year-old
Alexander McDonald, a Canadian of Scottish parents lived at this address
according to the 1900 Federal census. He was a railroad engineer with a
22-year-old wife and a year-old son born in Utah.
3 East Tricassa Terrace
Thorpe Waddingham
resided at this address according to the 1900 federal census. He and his wife
were English, and 34 years old. They had three children all born in Montana and
his occupation was that of a railroad engineer.
Chapter Twenty
Lot Three Block 64 Plat
A
Lot Three was 10 rods
[165 feet] fronting Second South extending 20 rods [330 feet into the
interior.
Street Addresses for Lot
Three Block 64 Plat A
542 West Second South
AKA 149 South Within Block 64 Union
On the north
Fourth [Fifth] of Lot Three in the center of Block 64 was the Blacksmith and
Machine Shop complex of Joseph J. Duckworth [1851-1909]. An easement listed as
a private drive in the 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map gave access to the
property from Second South between 544 West and 534 West. In the northwest
corner of Lot Three was a one and a half story wooden dwelling that was
numbered 542 ½ West. In 1898 it was located north of the four brick homes on
west Boyd Avenue. See Chapter Seven Forgotten People
In 1892 the Salt Lake City directory listed Rufus B.
Wells, [1866-1952] of “Shumaker and Wells” as a “roomer” at this address. In
1895 he brought lawsuit to recover $150 from a promissory note of A.E.
Vanderhoof, a young man, who had given it to the mother of the girl he had impregnated, who had
then assigned it to Wells.
In the 1898 city directory he was listed
a “pattern maker for the Rio Grande Western Railway but in 1900 was called a
“mold maker”. In 1898 he was also the “grand noble” of Lodge No. Two of the
Oddfellows but had moved away from Second South and eventually out of state to
Washington.
William Blair Boyd, the
son of George W. Boyd, occupied this address next according to the 1898 city
directory. He was listed as working as a “fireman” for the Rio Grande Western
railway residing at 524 West Second South which was a printing error. See “No 4 Boyd’s Terrace” and 155 South
Fourth [Fifth]
544 West Second South
George Washington Boyd
[1825-1903] was a Mormon Pioneer polygamist living at this location as early as
1857. He had married three Baldwin sisters whose mother owned parts of
Lot Four in Block 64. He had been a member of the Mormon Battalion and a
veteran of the Utah Indian wars.
Elizabeth “Lizzie”
Chamberlin was the widow of John Wilbert Chamberlin which made her a
sister-in-law to Althea Chamberlin Brown, James Thomas Chamberlin, and William
Henry Chamberlin other residents of Blocks 63 and 64. .
She was John W.
Chamberlin’s second wife who raised her stepchildren and had had six
children of her own by her husband before he died in 1891 leaving her a
widow at the age of 33. Four of her children died in infancy and one son died
at the age of 15 years.
She raised her family on
John W. Chamberlin’s place at 215 South Fourth [Fifth] West in Block 62 until
she bought the old home of George W. Boyd in 1900 after remodeling her home at
215 South Fourth [Fifth] Street. On New Year Eve 1899 she received a permit to
remodel a two-story six room brick dwelling for $1000. At the same
time, she had a permit for “Earl’s Terrace at 544, 546 and 548 West Second
South Street three one-story five room brick dwellings with porticos for $4000.
This had to be the row houses that were listed as on Tressca in 1900.
The only mention of
Lizzie Chamberlin in news accounts was when she made a complaint in 1901
against “J.E. Boren of Provo , a member of a prominent family.” “Mrs.
Elizabeth Chamberlin lodged complaint against him, alleging that on Sept. 26 he
had taken a bicycle belonging to her son Denton, valued at $15 and disposed of
it. Boren is said to have secured possession of the wheel to sell it for Mrs.
Chamberlin. She avers that she never saw either wheel, the proceeds of the sale
or Boren after that time. In consideration of Boren’s family, the court
announced that no objection would be made to a settlement between principals ,
something that will follow, it is said.”
Elizabeth “Lizzie”
Chamberlin’s son Earl Chamberlin died in 1904 at the age of 15 years of
congestion of the lungs. His death certificate stated the family was living at
One Earl Terrace. City directories also referred to Earl Terrace as “Boyd
Court.
The 1905 city directory listed Lizzie
Chamberlin at 544 West Second South but evidently, she moved from this home by
1906 and was living at the No 1 Earl Terrace when remarried in 1906. Her second
husband was James H Johnson, a brakeman for the Denver and Rio Grande railroad. The 1907 The
1907 city directory listed him as residing at 170 Boyd Court.
Lizzie Chamberlin died in 1908 while living in the
rear of 544 West. Her funeral noticed stated “rear 544 West Second South,
May 2, 1908, Elizabeth Chamberlain Johnston wife of James H Johnston age
49 years. The funeral will be held Monday at 3 p.m. from the Fifteenth Ward
meeting house. Friends will be invited to attend. The casket will be opened on
day of funeral at the family residence. She was a member of the Woodbine Circle
No. 41 W. of W.” W. of W. referred to Women of Woodcraft a female
auxiliary to Woodmen of the World a fraternal organization.
Her only surviving child Denton Chamberlin married a few
months after the death of his mother and moved away. James H. Johnson applied
to be appointed administrator of her estate and by 1909 he was rooming at the
newly built Washington Hotel at 528 ½ West Second South.
Boyd’s Terrace north
from 544 West Second South
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed that behind the residence of George W. Boyd was a row of
four, adjoining one-story brick homes. They were numbered 1 West, 2 West 3
West, and 4 West and were directly across from the three brick homes that were
named on Tricassa Terrace. The Sanborn Map called the street between these
triplexes and quadplexes “Boyd Avenue.”
In January 1898 William
Boyd applied for a building permit at 542 West to build “four compartment brick
terrace homes” with “five room in each estimated $2500.” Boyd Terrace was not
listed until 1898 in a city directory however and advertisement from 1897
sought “an Intelligent lady as Representative of established business at No 2
Boyd’s Terrace, Second South between Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth West. Eventually
the homes that had been built for William B Boyd were by 1910 used as “brothels
and dives where utter lawlessness will prevail.”
No 1 Boyd’s Terrace
Frank H. Thomas was a
30-year-old conductor for the Oregon Short Line residing at this address in
1901 but not in 1900.
No. 2 Boyd’s Terrace
Joseph Bouton was a
40-year-old native of Illinois who worked as railroad conductor according to
the 1900 federal census.
No. 3 Boyd’s Terrace
The 1900 city directory
and federal census George C Hahn [1859-1937] and family at thus address. He was
a butcher and meat cutter by trade and operated Hahns Brothers Meats with
brother William J Hahn. “Fresh, Salted, and Smoked Meats, Fancy and Staple
Groceries Butter and Eggs 356 South State Street. The family was still living
there in 1906 but had moved away from Second South by 1907.
No 4 Boyd’s Terrace
A fire broke out in
March 1900 contained to a “one-story brick house in Boyd’s court near the Rio
Grande depot last night. The house is owned by William Boyd and occupied by
William. E Valiant, a freight conductor employed on the Oregon Short Line
. At the time of the fire no one was home. One bedroom was badly burned,
and other rooms damaged. The loss to the house and content placed at $250.”
546 West Second South
This address was not
shown on the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. However, the 1900 Federal Census
listed a woman named “Eugeney Gillenwater” at this address. Gillenwater
was listed as a married woman with two minor children along with a female
roomer. The enumerator missed identified her as that her real name was
Ada Forbes married to “Eugene Charles Gillenwater”. Eugene Gillenwater was
listed in the 1901 City Directory of Seattle, Washington where this family had
moved to by 1910.
558 West Second South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed an adobe one story home at this address. It was 70
feet from the 544 West residence. It was the residence of Samuel Boyd, son of
George W Boyd. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed house to be a one-story
adobe dwelling with a wooden addition behind and a wooden porch that abutted up
to a brick store.
Samuel M. Boyd
[1857-1946] the son of George W. Boyd and Abigail Baldwin Boyd was living in
Tooele County on his father’s ranch at Deep Creek according to the 1880 federal
census. In 1885 he married Polly Egbert [1860-1929] in Salt Lake City.
See Chapter Seven Forgotten People
From 1895 through 1896
Samuel M Boyd moved from the home and a carpenter named Theodore Eigle,
[1853-1937] employed by the Utah and Nevada Railway, replaced him at this
residence. He was a German emigrant who claimed Austria and
Czechoslovakia as his birthplace although his obituary stated he was born in
Bohemia once part of the Austrian Empire and after World War I part of Czechoslovakia. See
Chapter Seven Forgotten People
562 West Second South
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a one-story brick store at this address that was built
after 1889. This may have been the property of James Hegney bought from George
W. Boyd.
In 1897 a German named
Carl August Wescher who was a “Boot and Shoemaker” had a shop at this
address. “Dealer in Boots, Shoes, and Rubbers.” However, he moved from
Second South in 1898 and by 1900 became a American citizen.
The 1900 a barber named
Julius John [Jay J] Jensen had a family of eight living at this address. He was
Danish and his wife was Norwegian. In 1897 J. J. Jensen was advertised as the
inventor of “the hair restorer which will raise whiskers on a doorknob.”
He had moved from this shop by 1901 and located his barbershop at 571 West
Second South near the Albany Hotel. By 1905 he had left Second South altogether
.
The 1900 City Directory
listed Mrs. Maggie Ashley [1848-1913] as operating a restaurant from this
address but her residence was on 17 Goodhue Avenue. Her husband Romanzo Ashley
[1841-1913] was civil war veteran and managed the restaurant according to the 1900
director. He was a fruit peddler in the 1900 federal census. There was no
Maggie Ashley restaurant listed in the 1901 directory.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lot Four Block 64 Plat A
Lot Four consisted of 10
rods [165 feet] fronting Second south and 20 rods [330 feet] along Fifth
[Sixth] West. It was divided into two sections the southern half belonged to
the Baldwin Family and the northern half belonged to James Bussell who also
owned a section of Lot Five.
According to the Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map, Lot Four was divided up into six parcels by 1889. Two
parcels measuring 5 rods [82.5 feet] each fronted Second South with the
addresses of 568 and 574 West Second South. These were in Nancy Baldwin’s lower
half. By 1898 these two parcels had the addresses of 566 West, 568 west,
570 West, 572 West 596 West and 596 West Second South.
North of these two
parcels were three parcels of about 4 rods [66 feet] each and 20 rods [330
feet] into the interior. These would have been on property owned by James
Bussell. All of the parcels fronted Fifth [Sixth] West with the address of 161
South, 155 South, and 149 South. The furthest north parcel in lot four was also
part of Lot Five but was absorbed by 149 South by 1898.
Nancy Baldwin and James
K. Baldwin
Nancy Baldwin, the widow
of Caleb Baldwin was the original grantee of the south half of lot five located
at the corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth]. She had been nearly 18 when
her Mormon family driven had been driven from Jackson County Missouri in 1833.
She was mentioned in 1882 as just a few of those “stilling living and a member
of church.
Her title to the lot was
secured in 1872 as the south half of Lot Four corner of Second South and
Fifth West. In 1881 Nancy Baldwin [1798-1883] sold to her son James Kingsbury
Baldwin [1826-1884] her property for $5. The parcel was described as
commencing at the southwest corner going north 6 ½ rods [107 feet four
inches] then east 10 rods [165 feet] backing to the beginning.
At the time of James K
Baldwin’s death, he had “all the right, title, and interest and estate of a
portion of Lot Four described as “commencing at the Southwest corner of
said lot and running thence north six- and one-half rods [107 feet and three
inches] , thence east six rods [99 feet] , thence south six and half rods
thence west six rods to place of the beginning.”
Henry Moore, who resided
on Second South in Block 64, was the administrator of the estate of James K
Baldwin In 1886 the property was described as commencing at the southwest
corner of Lot Four and running thence North Six Rids thence East five
rods then south and west to place of the beginning containing 30
square rods of ground also one adobe House of Six Rooms in said lot.
James Bussell Pioneer
James Bussell
[1805-1884] held title to a little more than 13 rods [215 feet] of the
northern portion of Lot four and 8 rods [132 feet] of Lot Five. He immigrated
to Utah from England in 1853 with his wife Louisa to Utah with the Cyrus H.
Wheelock Company at the ages of 47 and 42. He settled on Block 64 before 1860.
His various occupations were given as “Scissor grinder”, “day laborer”, and
plasterer. In the 1870 federal census he was identified as residing between
James K. Baldwin and James Moyle.
The 1880 federal census
listed James Bussell as living at the 103rd dwelling visited by the enumerator
in the Fifteenth Ward and residing on Fifth [Sixth] West Street. At this dwelling were included four households
of thirteen individuals. Some of these households were probably residing in the
southern portion of Lot Five as well. Only Bussell’s household were English
emigrants. The rest were Welsh.
The families enumerated with
James Bussell and his wife Louisa in the
103rd dwelling were Sarah Unger, a 45-year-old widow and her son and
daughter Albert Unger and Alberta were
household 129. Twenty-eight-year-old Albert Unger was listed as an engineer.
Others were William
Harmon a 59-year-old “laborer” along with two
grown sons listed as laborers and two
infants by his second wife Jane. His two-year-old son was listed as
having “diphtheria.” William and Jane George, a middle-aged couple were listed
as household 131 and he was a 54-year-old laborer.
The 1884 city directory listed Bussell’s
address as 121 South Fifth West which would have been within Lot Five. He died
in 1884 and the cause of death was simply listed as “old age.” Bussell’s birth and death dates are found on
his grave marker, located in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
In 1887 Louisa the widow
of James Bussell sold a small parcel to George Shill [1826-1903] for $62.50.
This family in 1880 lived on Fifth West. Later the same year George and
Harriett Shill sold to Sarah H Cannon for $1600 the northern portion of
southwest corner containing 10 rods [165 feet]. Sarah H. Cannon was the widow
of George H Cannon who died in 1887.
Land records of Lot Five
are confusing and it is not clear how certain individuals became property
owners. In 1889 Ferdinand LeCuyer
[1856-1934] and his wife Wilhelmina “Minnie”
Bjorkman LeCuyer [1861-1933] sold to Sarah H. Cannon a portion of Lot
Four and Five for $4000. LeCuyer was a French Canadian who came to Utah in 1875
and was an upholsterer by trade. Over the years he was employed by the
Dinwoodie Furniture Store as well as the Freed Furniture Company. In the 1888 city directory he was listed as
residing at 39 West First south. It is not known how he acquired this property
that he sold.
In 1889 Louisa Bussell sold
to Annie Becker wife of Frederick Beck part
of Lot Five , five and half rods from Southwest former of Lot Five.
After the death of her
husband Louisa Bussell returned to England. The will of the late Louisa Bussell
“formerly of Salt Lake City but more recently of Middlesex, England was yesterday
[19 May 1898] filed in the probate court. The deceased bequeathed $300 in ZCMI
stock to Ulysses W Payne Hutchings , $800 in ZCMI stock , £100 in the National
Provincial Bank of England to Louisa Hutchings, daughter of the deceased, and
£100 in the National Bank of England to Charles George Chant Hutchings.”
James Bussell sold to
Dirk Buckholt, who was a Salt Lake County Probate Clerk, property located in both Lot Four and Lot
Five. Dirk Bockholt then sold a portion of this property to Robert H
Smith for $2700. Smith then sold to Sarah Williams a portion of the
property for $1750. She was the married to David Williams both Welsh emigrants.
Buckholt also sold a portion of the land
to Thomas Quayle for $500
“Sudden death of Dirk
Bockholt. About 11 o’clock yesterday [1 January 1887] morning, Mr. Dirk
Bockholt , ex-county clerk, left his house at 457 Fifth South Street with the
intention of boarding the streetcar running past his premises. Just as he
reached the track, he was taken with a fainting fit and fell to the ground. He
was assisted back into the house and died in a few minutes. The direct cause of
his death could not be learned but it is supposed to be an epileptic fit. Mr.
Bockholt was about 43 years of age. The funeral will be held at the Fifteenth
Ward schoolhouse tomorrow at 10 o’clock.
Little is known
regarding Robert H Smith or if he even lived on the property although he
resided within the Fifteenth Ward. The only newspaper account of him is from
1879. “Last Monday Night, [3 December 1878] the wife of Brother Robert H Smith
of the Fifteenth Ward presented him with a bouncing baby boy, weighing 15 lbs.
If the young Hercules fills up the measure of his creation through life,
as well as he begun, he will indeed be a “mighty man in Israel”. So be
it.”
There was a Robert Smith
aged 59 listed in the 1880 Census living
in the 19th Ward but there was no male child listed in the household
but he seems to have been a Robert D. Smith
Street Addresses for Lot
Four Block 64 Plat A
564 [1889] 566 [1898]
West Second South
This three-room wooden
home was built in 1890 when Mrs. Martha Dummer Baldwin the widow of James K.
Baldwin, had it constructed at 564 West Second South for $600. The 1898 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map showed it to be a one-story wooden dwelling at the address
of 566 West. It then abutted up against the brick store located at 562 on the
property line of lot Three.
In 1895 Frank Parry
resided at the 566 West address, but by 1900 Caleb Baldwin, Mrs. Martha
Baldwin’s son lived here.
Caleb Baldwin’s family
consisted of a wife and three minor children in the 1900 federal census. His
occupation was given as a lumberyard laborer. By 1901 he had left Second
South.
568 and 570 West Second South Duplex
The 1880 federal census
listed the family of James Kingsbury Baldwin [1826-1884] as living on Second
South near Fourth [Fifth] West. He was the son of Caleb and Martha
Baldwin who had been Mormon converts living in Nauvoo before the exodus
to Utah. They were one of the original landowners in Block 64. He was also the
brother-in-law of George W. Boyd.
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed only one residence on the parcel. The main dwelling was a
one- story house constructed with adobe bricks with a wooden porch in the front
and a small wooden room in the rear.
ln 1890 the widow of
James K. Baldwin, Martha Dummer Baldwin, resided at the address of 568 West. In
the 1894 City Directory she was listed at this address with her son, James K
Baldwin [1869-1937] who was a helper on Rio Grande Western Railway,
In 1896 “About twenty
ladies of the Second precinct met yesterday afternoon at the residence of Mrs.
J. K. Baldwin 568 West Second South to organize a “Bryan Silver Club.” The
“Free Silver campaign” was led by Democratic Presidential nominee,
William Jennings Bryan, in 1896. Republicans were in favor of keeping the gold
standard as the sole basis for our nation’s currency while Democrats on the
other hand were for the free coinage of silver, allowing silver and gold to
circulate together.”
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a large one-story adobe dwelling only eleven feet from the
home constructed at 566 West. It had two porch entrances and had two addresses,
568 and 570 West.
The 1900 Federal census
showed the widow Martha Baldwin residing here along with her brother-in-law
George W. Boyd. George He was listed as a widower who was a roomer in her
household.
Martha Baldwin was the
head of a household of three grown children and two granddaughters in
1900. She owned the home and her sons James K Baldwin, and George A
Baldwin were listed as a blacksmith helper and a blacksmith apprentice.
James K. Baldwin was a widower, and his two daughters were listed as the grandchildren
living in the household.
Martha Baldwin died
in1905 but her son George A Baldwin was still listed at the address in the City
Directory. However, all the Baldwin’s were gone from Second South by
1906.
570 West Second South
By 1898 the residence of
Martha Baldwin was split into a duplex with the west half of the home being
listed as 570 West Second South.
George W Hales’ family
consisted of wife and two children in the 1900 federal census lived at this
address. He was a thirty-eight-year-old railroad brakeman and rented his
half of the house. By 1902 he had left the Second South area .
572 West Second South
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance map showed that the building was a single room one- story wooden
dwelling. It was a mere five feet from the adobe home at 568 West and it
fronted Second South. It was very small home of about 10 feet by twenty
feet.
The 1896 city directory
listed Andrew J Gordon, a shoemaker rooming at this address. He was gone from
the city by 1897.
Silas D. Rall, listed as
a Contractor in the 1900 federal census, was using this address for his
business. No one was residing here as a residence. Ralls resided at 156 South
Fourth [Fifth] West [Fifth West] on Block 64 along with William Rall also a
carpenter.
574 Second South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed only one dwelling on the corner parcel of Lot Four in
Block 64 at Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West. The address of 574 West
contained a home with a mix of adobe brick towards the front and a longer
wooden attached room behind. It was 45 feet from its nearest neighbor at
568 West. Except for an outhouse nothing else was located on the corner
property.
Elizabeth Metz,
“Procuress”
Elizabeth Metz is first mentioned in newspaper accounts
in January 1894 when a man named Charles Hines was “charged with using
abusive language” towards her and the charges were dismissed.” See Chapter
Seven Forgotten People Elizabeth Metz
Democratic Meeting Hall
After the arrests of
Metz and others at 574 West Second South, the address was no longer used as a
house of “ill-fame.” In October 1896, a “Democratic meeting held in the Second
Municipal Ward for the benefit of the railroad men of the Rio Grande Western”
was at this location.
The meeting “was strange
contrast with the Republicans of the Third where it was attempted to convince
Union Pacific workers their jobs depended on the success of the local
Republican ticket. Republicans had less than 50 railroaders with votes to
talk to while the Democrats could not find seats for all who endeavored to gain
admittance to the hall where the meeting was held. Meeting held at the corner
of Second south and Fifth [Sixth] West, in a vacant building which was packed
to the door long before the speaking commenced.”
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance map listed this dwelling set back from the street and only a few feet
behind two stores at 596 and 598 West. There was an adobe front half of the
building with a larger wooden one story behind it.
596 West Second South
also known as 576 West Second South
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a small wooden structure at this address listed as a
store. The 1899 City directory for Salt Lake City listed this address as the
residence of Cloyd L Sanford [1860-1945] and his wife Edith Martin Sanford
[1871-1944], shopkeepers. See Chapter Seven Forgotten People
The Sanford’s Residence
In March 1899 C L
Sanford, at the “corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West” place an
advertisement stating “Lost, Strayed or Stolen. Small, Black, dehorned milch
cow, branded ‘T’ on left ribs. Liberal reward for return.”
598 West Second South
also known as 580 West Second South
The Sanford’s Store
The 1899 City directory
for Salt Lake City listed this address as the Sanford’s Supply Company, a grocer,
and meats store. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showed that it was a
one-story wooden building used as a store and attached to the building at 576
West. Some 37 feet behind the Supply Store was a wooden building with
the address of 598 ½ West that the Sanborn map listed as “not used” mostly like
a storage barn or shed.
161 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
At the corner of Fifth
[Sixth] West and Second South was a one-story adobe dwelling with a wooden
front porch and small attached rooms in the rear according to the 1889 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map.
David Hirschler “Whole
Sale Liquor Distributor”
David Hirschler resided
here for a period of time in the early 1890’s and may have operated a wholesale
liquor shop at this location.
In 1890 Hirschler was a
member of a large wholesale liquor house in San Francisco and was “in the city
for the purpose of establishing a branch house here.” In 1891 a Mr. H.
Hoffheurman had his liquor license transferred to David Hirschler which was
renewed in June 1893 for three months.
David Hirschler
residence was given as “at Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West.” He advertised
“Wholesale and retail wines and liquors southeast corner of Fifth [Sixth] West
and Second South” and had a telephone for his hop. He moved back to San
Francisco in 1893.
The Giesy Foundry
The Giesy Foundry and
Machine Company was built at 161 South Fifth West in 1894. It was a one-story
stone building for foundry purposes, having the value of $1000.
“Articles of
incorporation of the Giesy Foundry ad Machine company” were filed 13 July 1894.
“The company will engage in the business of making iron moulding and castings
and the manufacturing of machinery. The capital stock is placed at $10,000
divided into shares of the denomination of $10 each. The incorporators are
William S Giesy, Emery Ward, John M Dietz, James Moffat, and Sidney Darke, each
of whom subscribe for 100 shares.”
“The Giesy Foundry
turned their wheels yesterday [August 17] and are now ready to do any and all
work that may be brought to them. They will cast any piece required to make an
old stove new, repair machine castings from the old pieces, and do any and all
work in iron and brass foundry work.”
The company was not in business
after 1895 and may have been affected by the Economic Recession of the Panic of
1893.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire
Insurance map showed that the old one-story adobe dwelling had been demolished
and replaced by the foundry that was no longer in use.
155 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
A Tenement House
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map listed a two-story adobe brick tenement building at this
address, 21 feet north of 161 South. It had several wooden one-story
structures attached to it.
The 1889 city directory
listed George W. Boyd’s son William Boyd, motorman , as a tenant. William
Boyd was listed in the 1896 city directory back at 155 South Fourth [Fifth]
West and employed as a Salt Lake City Railway car operator. The following
year 1897, William Boyd had moved to 542 West Second South, still employed as a
“car operator” for the Salt Lake City Railroad Company.
Henry Hodges lived
here from 1890 until 1892 and later moved to Jeremy Street.
John Phillips a foreman for the Rio Grande
Western resided at 155 South 5th west from 1895 through 1896. The wife of
Erastus O Andrews, Deborah died at this address in 1898. He was a
carpenter.
The 1900 federal census
enumerated twelve people in six households residing at this address, The heads
of households were John Eddings, Catherine Scharrer, Myrtle Norwood, Erastus
Andrews, Sarah Unger, and Elias C Evans].
John Eddings was a
70-year-old Englishman listed as household 136 with his 66-year-old wife
Harriett.
Catherine J Scharrer was
a 42-year-old native of Ohio with two children, 12-year-old Edith and
8-year-old Orrin, living in her household. Her daughter in law Myrtle Norwood
and grandson Clarence were also included in this household.
Erastus O. Andrews was a
60-year-old widower living by himself as household 138.
A 60-year-old Welsh
widow named Sarah Unger also lived by herself, as household 139.
Elias C Evans
[1875-1939] had only been married a year and lived with his wife Mary and
newborn daughter at Household 140. He was a 24-year-old Barber.
149 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map listed a two-story adobe brick dwelling with a one-story wooden
attachment in the rear of the home. A one and half wooden structure was listed
as 149 ½ South, most likely a barn.
Mrs. Sarah Williams
“widow”
The 1900 federal census
enumerated a 72-year-old Welsh widow named Sarah Williams at this address. The
1899 city directory said she was the widow of David Williams. Her 27-year-old
son Alma D Williams lived with her and worked as a “Railroad Caller”.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lot Five Block 64 Plat
A
Lot Five consisted of 20 Rods [330 feet] fronting Fifth
[Sixth] West from the corner of First South and 10 rods [165 feet] facing First
South Street. James Henry Moyle owned the northern two thirds of the lot,
about 12 rods [198 feet] while James Bussell [1805-1884] held title to 8
rods [132 feet] of Lot Five from the southwest corner adjoining Lot Four.
in 1872 his title was assured by a mayoral deed.
In 1875 James Bussell
deed to Dirk Buckholt deeded 8 rods [185 feet] of Lot Five as well as 13 ½ rods
[222 feet 8 inches] in Lot Four. In 1881 Bussell also sold to Mary James for $500 a parcel within
Lot Five.
In 1885 James
Moyle sold to Harry F Evans the west corner of the northern part of Lot
Five. In 1886 Moyle sold 4 [66 feet] rods of the east part of the
northern portion of Lot Five. He was selling a much of this property in Lot
Five to send his son James Henry Moyle Jr. through law school.
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed that Lot Five had been divided into four parcels.
Part of a parcel was located between Lot Four and Five which had belonged to
James Bussell. Three of the parcels that belonged to James Moyle had addresses
on Fifth [Sixth] West and the Fourth [Fifth] West and fronted First South.
James Henry Moyle Sr.
[1835-1890] was an English Mormon
Convert who came to Utah within the Darwin Richardson Company as a “stonecutter
and mason.” He was the grandfather of Henry Dinwoodey Moyle [1889-1963], a
member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and of the First Presidency of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In 1875 Moyle was
selected by Brigham Young to take charge of the stonecutters for the Salt
Lake Temple Block, a position he occupied until 1886 when he was appointed
general superintendent of the all the works on the block.
The 1880 federal census
enumerated James Moyle as a 45-year-old “mason and builder”, residing with his
first wife Elizabeth Wood Moyle and her four children. She was a daughter of
Daniel Wood the pioneer founder of Wood Cross and one of the first six families
in Bountiful.
Moyle’s plural wife,
Margaret Cannell Moyle, was enumerated as 36 years and a native of the Isle of
Man. She was keeping house for a family of two daughters and two sons. She had come
to Utah in one of the last handcart companies from across the plains in 1868.
After James H Moyle died, she was a widow for nearly thirty years. She was
the sister-in-law of Henry Moore. He died of Typhoid Pneumonia in 1890, while
he was “Superintendent of works”, and it was reported he had “one hundred men
under his control. ” His funeral held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. By
his two wives he fathered twenty-three children.
Street Addresses for Lot
Five Block 64 Plat A
135 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
This one-story adobe
brick structure was 75 feet north of 149 South according to the 1889 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map. John H. Lewis [1860-1931] “iron molder” was listed in the 1890 city directory at this residence. His
parents were Welsh emigrants He was a “iron molder” for the Eagle Foundry but had
moved away by 1892. Tragically this family lost four children as infants
between 1885 and 1891 due to premature births. The 1900 census said he was a
sheepherder and his wife listed herself as the mother of no children. He is
listed in the 1910 census living in Eureka, Utah working in a quartz mine. She
and her husband must have separated as when she died in 1916 her death certificated
stated she was a widow when her husband was still alive.
By 1895 Robert Lincoln
Rice, [1862-1925] a brakeman for the Rio Grande Western Railway, was residing
at this address and lived here for nearly twenty years. In 1898 William
Pilgerrim, a conductor for the Oregon Short Line Railroad also lived at this
address. He moved out to 121 South in 1899.
The 1900 federal census
also enumerated two households at this address. “Robert L Rice” a 37-year-old
“Mining man” from New York, was number 142 and 22-year-old Utah native Clarence
Rawlings, a Railroad Fireman was number 143. Both men were renters.
Robert Lincoln Rice had
a 25-year-old wife named Mary Rawlings, a Utah native and mother of three
children however only two were living in 1900. An infant son died in 1898
of scarlet fever. She doesn’t seem to be related to Clarence Rawlings, however.
Rice was still listed as
living at this address in the 1910 federal census but working as a railroad
conductor. The family moved from this address in 1915. He was killed in
1925 on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway, near Wendover, Utah.” His
obituary stated he had been a resident of Salt Lake City for 35 years.
”
Clarence Rawlings “Engineer
for Union Pacific” had a 23-year-old wife whom he recently married and one
infant daughter. He was a tall man, “6'1 with grey eyes & brown
hair”.
In 1893 when Clarence
Rawlings was fifteen years old, he participated in a 100-mile bicycle relay
race from “Beck’s Hot Springs to Provo and return to the Hotel Knutsford” in
Salt Lake City.” His portion of the race was from Provo back to Salt
Lake.
Rawlings moved from
Provo to Salt Lake when he was 18 in 1896. His first job, at age 18, was a
waiter at L.W. Dittman’s restaurant at 537 East Third South in Salt
Lake. Later still in 1896, he started working for the railroad as a
fireman, then Inspector, and worked his way up until he became an Engineer for
Union Pacific in Salt Lake.
Rawlings married Emma
Vilate Elsmore on Feb. 22, 1899. Her 15-year-old sister named “Louie Elsmore”
also lived within the Rawling’s household in 1900 probably to help with the
newborn infant.
Rawlings eventually
moved to Denver in 1922 to take the job of Superintendent of Air Brakes for
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad.
127 South, 125 South,
and 123 South Fifth [Sixth] West
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed two dwellings on this parcel. A single large one-story
building consisting of brick, adobe, and wood was at the southern end of the
parcel listed as 121 South Fifth West and north of it was a much smaller
one-story adobe house.
These buildings were
demolished before 1898 as according to the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, a
brick one story triplex consisting of three addresses was located on this
parcel, thirty-two feet north of 135 South. Behind it was a one-story
wooden dwelling at 121 South West.
Frank Colclough [1857-1912]
Officer of the Midvale Police Department
lived at 125 South. Frank Colclough had published an advertisement in 1894 during
the Panic of 1893 Depression “Notice to Farmers-Owing to the depression in
trade in this city many hardest working men and their families will suffer
during the winter that is so near at hand. You can help many to get their
winter potatoes, by employing those men to help you get in your potatoes. The
Laboring Men’s Association will supply all the help you need. We want work and
will take any kind of produce for our pay. Address Frank A Colclough 125 South
Fifth West.”
At the time of his death
Marshal Colclough was married and the father of four grown children. An
obituary for him stated “Marshal Francis A. Colclough died on August 7, 1912,
at the age of 55 while a member of the Midvale Police Department. Night Marshal
Colclough was shot to death during an attempted armed robbery. In the late
evening hours, the 55-year-old victim conducted a business check on the Vienna
Saloon.”
“As the victim was
discussing with the bartender the robbery of a nearby saloon, two armed men
entered and announced a holdup. Marshal Colclough and one of the armed robbers
were mortally wounded during the pitched gun battle that ensued. A second robber
escaped. A suspect was eventually arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to
prison.”
However, this sentence
was overturned in 1914 by the Utah Supreme Court and the suspect was not
retried. He is buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery. His bronze name plaque is
sponsored by the Sandy Police Alliance, FOP Lodge 21.”
The Swinger Family
The 1899 city directory
listed three men, by the name of Swinger at the address of 125 South. They were
Charles Swinger, a conductor for the Rio Grande Western Railway, and his sons,
John Swinger, and William E Swinger, who was a barber. John and William were
boarding with their father Charles.
They were not listed in
the 1898 directory at this address but in 1900 the family of Charles Swinger
was residing at this location. The federal census listed him as a 40-year-old
German railroad conductor, married, and the father of eight
children.
Chinese laundry man Wah
Lee was in court 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. The Charles Swinger family lived on
125 South Fifth [Sixth] West in block 64. See-523 West First South. See “523
West First South”
Next door at 123 South
Fifth West, the 1893 city listed Frederick W. Becker [1831-1909] as an
architect. He was a Civil War Veteran, having served in the 2nd California
cavalry. Becker had enlisted as a private at the Presidio of San Francisco,
California, October 22, 1861, and was mustered into Company K, 2nd California
Cavalry. He was promoted to corporal and transferred to Company D, same
regiment, January 1, 1862. Corporal Becker was promoted to Saddler Sergeant and
transferred to Field & Staff, same regiment, July 1, 1863. Saddler Sergeant
Becker was mustered out at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Frederick William Beck
and Elizabeth Matilda Summervid Beck who was his second wife had property in
block 64 described in a deed dated 1892; “beginning at a point five and
one-half rods [82 feet six inches] north of the southwest corner of said
lot five and running thence north four- and one-half rods [74 feet and
three inches.] thence east ten rods [165 feet] thence south four- and
one-half rods thence west 10 rods to point of the beginning.
Fredrick Becker’s
daughter, Annie Becker, married a German immigrant named Henry William Hurst
[1870-1955] in 1892 who was also residing at this address in April 1893. Hurst
stated he came to the United States in 1888 when he would have been 17 or 18
years old. Henry William Hurst in 1893 bought from Emanuel Kahn part of
Lot Five for $800.
An article from 1893
stated that Hurst, was “a grocer of tender years, and doing business at the
corner of Second South and Fifth [Sixth] West streets.” The gist of the article
was Hurst’s assertion that his 19-year-old wife, “Annie G Becker who he married
a year ago in Ogden was abducted by her father Fred W. Becker, a Murray saloon
keeper from her home at 123 South Fifth [Sixth] West.”
Hurst maintained that
his wife, “Annie was deeded property by her late mother” contrary to the wishes
of her father. Becker allegedly secured the deed and substituted his name for
the grantee in place of his daughter. Hurst sued his father-in-law after he
alleged that Becker “inveigled his daughter into a carriage and whirled her off
to Murray and there kept her.”
Hurst then called at the
“Becker mansion” and learned “she was an inmate against her will”. He obtained
a warrant for the arrest of his father-in-law on a charge of an assault on him and “upon one Annie G.
Hurst.” Becker was arrested but released on bail. “He was acquitted a few
days later.”
The 1894 city directory
listed Henry W. Hurst, as a bartender, still at this address and by 1896 he was
a clerk for the Utah Liquor company, but by 1897 he had moved out of this
house.
The 1900 Federal census
listed the Hurst family residing at 52 South Fifth [Sixth] West street as a
traveling salesman. Anna Hurst was the mother of 4 children with only two still
alive.
William Henry died in
1955 as did his wife three months later. They are buried in the Salt Lake City
Cemetery.
Matthew H Rhodes [1853-1907] was “Acting Salt Lake Chief
of Police” and in 1900 his family resided here at this address. According to
the census he was an Englishman, 45 years old, and a section foreman for the
railroad. However, he had been a detective on the Salt Lake City Police force
until 1898. He had been appointed to the police force in 1890 and was
made detective by 1893.
Rhodes was acting Salt
Lake Chief of Police in 1898 until he was one of nine policemen whom the new
Police Chief Arthur Pratt discharged. Later the Utah Supreme Court ordered the
men to receive back pay from May 1898 to November as that “Chief Pratt had no
right to discharge these men.”
He moved to 123 South
Fifth West in 1899 probably to be close to the railroad ,where he worked after
he had been discharged from the police force. The 1901 city directory stated
that Matthew Rhodes had moved to Tucker, Utah, now a ghost town located near
the east end of the Spanish Fork River in Utah County, Utah, on U.S. Route 6.
It was once an important loading point and construction camp on the Denver
& Rio Grande Western Railroad.
After a new Chief of
Police replaced Arthur Pratt, Rhodes was on the force again as a detective, but
he died of cancer in 1907 while having surgery in Indianapolis. “The funeral
services of Matthew Rhodes, the detective, who devoted many years of his life
to the protection of life and property in Salt Lake, will be held in the
Masonic Temple after which his remains, of the city’s brave and faithful
servant, will be interred in Mt. Olivet cemetery.”
“The members of the
police force will also attend, in full uniform, Chief Roderick McKenzie having
issued orders to that effect.”
121 South Fifth [Sixth]
West
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map listed a combination of adobe and brick one-story dwelling at
this address. It was attached to a carpenter shop and several wooden add on
structures. Eleven feet to the north was another one-story adobe dwelling that
was given the Address of 219 South on the same property. Both of these
buildings were demolished to build the brick triplex with the address of 127,
125, and 123 South. The address of 121 South was by 1898 attached to a
one-story wooden building with an attic. Just to the north an easement allowed
access into the parcel to the north.
Frederick W. Becker “Architect”
In 1889, Louisa Bussell the widow of James Bussell, sold
five and half rods [90 feet and 9 inches] of the southwest portion of Lot Five for
$600 to Annie Becker the wife of Frederick W. Becker, who lived at this address
where his wife Annie who died in 1890.
He was an architect who
advertised in 1889, “F.W. Becker, Architect. Office No 42 East First South.
Plans and specifics prepared on short notice. Also evening school of
architectural drawing, stair casing, and geometry.”
“F.W. Becker, the
architect, appeared before Commissioner Norrell yesterday, [1 April 1889] to
answer a charge of embezzlement. A plea of not guilty was entered and the case
was dismissed.
In July 1890 Becker had
a building permit issued to build a two-room addition to his residence at 121
“north” Fifth West for $400.
After Annie Becker died
in 1890 at the age of 60, Frederick W. Becker married a 33-year-old woman the
following year. In 1891 this home was described as a “modest dwelling at 121
South Fifth West”.
“On Saturday [January 3]
evening soon after dark an intruder entered the house while Mr. Becker was
milking his cow near the back door. Hearing a noise, Mr. Becker went into the
house when he heard the prowler beat a retreat. Last evening [[January 5] again
milking his cow, a burglar entered the front room and ransacked the drawers of
the bureau scattering the contents on the floor. He was evidently searching for
money as the only articles he took were two purses containing 30 cents. Two
young ladies were in the adjoining rooms while the burglar was getting in his
work but did not hear him. He had unlocked the front door though the key had
been left crosswise in the keyhole insides. It was a bold crime considering the
locality and time of day.”
The Beckers moved by
1895 when the family of Charles Swinger resided here for a period of
time.
An article, regarding
the one-story wooden building behind the brick triplexes, mentioned a fire in
1897. The city directory for that year listed a baker named John. J. Miller who
works for the Mueller Brothers, “bakers and Confectioners” as boarding at this
address.
“Mrs. J.W. Miller and
her infant child living at 121 South Fifth West had a narrow escape from
burning to death this morning. When she retired last night, she left a lamp
burning in her bedroom. About 2 o’clock she was aroused from sleep by a fire in
the room and had only time to grasp the child and fly from the house in her
night clothing. It is supposed that the lamp exploded.”
“When the fire
department reached the place in response to an alarm, the fire had made much
progress. It was quickly extinguished but not before it had nearly ruined the
contents of the room and damaged the dwelling considerably.”
“Mrs. Miller had $200 in
bills in the mattress of the bed and the money was probably consumed. Her watch
was recovered for her, but other valuable articles were destroyed. Chief Devine
placed a man in charge of the room, and it is hoped that this sufficient
remains of the money may be found to entitle Mrs. Miller its redemption. Mr.
Miller is absent from the city. There was a small amount if insurance on the
furniture.”
The Pilgerrim Family
The Miller moved away,
and by the 1899 city directory William Pilgerrim [1872-1906] was residing at
this address, having moved form 135 South. He was a railroad train
conductor.
The 1900 federal census
listed a 35-year-old married woman named “Tillie” Pilgerrim at 121 South, Fifth
West. She was a native of Minnesota. William Pilgerrim was not enumerated as he
had gone to Alaska with the Augustus R Carter’s Alaska Gold Mining Company.
“R.H. Nichols, William
Pilgerrim, T. Bell, H.T. McDougall and Mr. and Mrs. J Buck constitute a party
of Salt Lakers who will said for Cape Nome from Seattle on the 25th [May 1900]
by the steamer Tacoma. The first four named left Salt Lake last night and Mr.
and Mrs. Buck will leave this morning [May 16] The entire party goes out it is
understood, with the assurance that if they care to, they can enter the employ
of the Alaska Gold Mining Company formed during the winter by Messrs. Madden and
Carter, and which is backed by some of the best-known mining men in town.
Tillie Pilgerrim stated she was married in 1891 which would
have made her six years older than her husband. No children were listed.
He was a member of the Order of Railroad Conductors, who conducted his funeral
when he died 1906 in Park City leaving an estate of $75 personal property and
$1500 in real estate to his wife Matilda.
William Barker was
listed in the 1899 city directory as residing In the rear of 121 South Fifth
West working as a porter [basic maintenance] at Samuel Bjorkelund’s barber
shop.
119 South and 117 South Fifth[Sixth]
West Duplex
In August 1890, the Salt
Lake Tribune reported that the firm of Dallas and Hedge “have the plans for
cottages to be built for Harry Evans in the Fifteen Ward.” Harry Evans
was a businessman who operated a grocery store, and these were built at the
south half of his property. The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed a
one-story brick duplex at this address.
Emery C Allen “Railroad Conductor”
From 1895 to 1900 a
railroad conductor named Emery C Allen, age 31 in 1900, lived at 119 South.
Allen was from Iowa and was married with two young children.
John McKeever “railroad Clerk”
Living adjacent at 117
South in 1900 was a man named John McKeever [1848-1910] who worked as a
Railroad Clerk. See Chapter Seven Forgotten People John McKeever
115 South and 113 Fifth
[Sixth] West
A one-story brick duplex
identical to 119 and 117 South was located at these addresses according to the
1898 Sanborn Map. Grocer Harry F Evans owned the duplex.
The 1892 city directory listed a Mrs. B David Barton
residing at this address. She would have been Josephine Barton wife of David B
Barton a saw maker. He was however not
listed until 1893.
The 1890 federal census
of veterans listed a David B Barton living in Ogden Utah who had joined the Union
Army in 1861 and had been captured at the battle of “Bull Run”. In the comments
it was stated he had an abscess on his right side. Civil War records showed
that he had enlisted in the 1st Regiment, US Sharpshooters (Regular Army),
Company B where his rank was as a private. His alternative names were “D.B.
Barton and “Edward D.B. Barton.”
The 1870 federal census
of Pennsylvania showed that David Barton was a 26-year-old man married to
Josephine Statzell residing with the family of his father-in-law George
Statzell. David Barton’s occupation was given as a “saw maker” and that he born
in Massachusetts. The couple were married in July 1869. A marriage record
showed they were married on 4 July 1869 in the St John's Street Methodist
Episcopal Church.
The city directory
showed that a David B Barton, a “mill man” boarded at this address. The 1894
city directory listed him at this address as a “saw maker’.
A grown daughter in 1894
died while the family resided at this address “Barton- In this city, April
19,1891 [1894], at the residence of her parents, No. 115 South Fifth West
Street, Miss Victoria V Barton aged 22 years 7 months and 10 days. Funeral
Sunday April 22, at 1 p.m. from the first Methodist Episcopal church. Friends
and acquaintances are respectfully invited to attend. Interment at Mount Olivet
cemetery. She was the daughter of David and Josephine Barton.”
The Bartons are not
listed in the 1896 Directory at all. By 197 the family had moved to 651 First South in 1899 they had moved again to
Fourth South. David and Josephine are listed in the 1900 city directory as
living at 50 West Fourth South. The 1900 federal census only listed Josephine
Barton as a married woman residing at 50 West Fourth [Fifth] South Street
living with a 57-year-old contractor and builder named Frank Lewis “boarder”. David B. Barton is not enumerated at all.
Josephine Barton died of
cancer later in October 1900 and the death registry stated she had lived in
Salt Lake City 6 years and was married. Her maiden name was Statzell, and she
was a native of Pennsylvania.
The 1901 City Directory
stated that David B Barton had moved to Denver, Colorado.
Charles Edwin Ives
The 1900 federal census
listed 34-year-old Charles Ives [1865-1937] residing here at 115 South with his
wife and Irish mother-in-law. He was a railroad engineer and although married 8
years they had no children listed. He was a native of Iowa.
The 1894 city directory
listed him as a “fireman” for the Rio Grande Railway rooming at 595 West second
South which was the Albany Hotel. Charles Ives was married in Kansas City in
1894 to Maggie Hinchey.
By 1896 he was listed as
residing at 241 South Fourth [Fifth] West still a Fireman for the Rio Grande
Western, also in 1897. . He was an engineer for the Rio Grande by 1898 when he
was listed as residing at 115 South Fifth [Sixth] West. He was one of the pallbearer
for John McKeever. He was still at this address in 1901.
He was involved in a
crash of two passenger trains as an engineer with the Rio Grande
Western. “Northbound passenger train No. 6 on the Rio Grande Western
dashed into the Salt Lake Rout’s eastbound passenger train No. 52 at 5:47
p.m. Yesterday [July 29] at the crossing on Ninth South and Sixth [Seventh]
west. “Although the passenger coach into which the engine crashed was filled
with men returning from work at the smelter near Garfield, no one was injured.”
“The Rio Grande engine
was in charge of engineer Charles E. Ives and Fireman Raphael H. Cottrel. As
soon as the engineer saw that the collision was coming, he reversed the brakes,
this preventing the engine from tearing through the San Pedro train. The
fireman jumped but the engineer stayed at his post until the train was brought
to a full stop.”
“Engineer Ives of
the Rio Grande Western did all je could possibly do to prevent the accident
considering the conditions of his brakes.”
The death of Charles
Ives’ wife was announced in 1907. “Death of Mrs. Ives – Good Woman Mourned by
Wide Circle of Friends. A telegram received from Los Angeles announces the
death from heart trouble of Mrs. Margaret Ives, the wife of Charles E Ives, a
well-known engineer on the Rio Grande Western Railroad, who resides at No 119
South Fifth West. Mrs. Ives was a most estimable woman, esteemed by all who had
known her intimately, and the intelligence of her death will be sad news to a
wide circle of friends.”
Her obituary also stated
she was 34 years old and had married in Kansas City in 1894 and two children
who had died in infancy were buried in Salt Lake City. “The deceased was a
member of St. Patrick’s parish. She was devoted, earnest Catholic, a truly good
time of Christian womanhood. Her daily life was most edifying and all who
knew her will ever remember the real sweetness of her nature.”
She was buried in the
Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles California.
The 1910 federal census
showed that Charles after the death of his wife was a lodger at 117 South Fifth
West, still working a locomotive engineer. Ives never remarried and was
working for the railroad up to the time of his death, however later as a
“fireman” out of Wendover, Utah.
Ives was printed in 1937
which stated “Charles E. Ives, 72, fireman on the Deep Creek railroad, died at
the home of J McGlachian here Wednesday [February 10] at 11 a.m. The
sheriff’s office reports that Mr. Ives was leaning over to put some coal in the
stove and fell. Death was due to a heart attack, it was reported. Mr. Ives was
born in Ireland and had been employed by the railroad for the last 15 years.
There are no survivors.”
As that someone other than family gave
information for the obituary there were errors as that he was born in Iowa and
had worked for the railroad from at least the early 1890s. Charles Ives was
buried in the Tooele City Cemetery.”
113 South Fifth
West
Frank A O’Shea
At 113 South Frank
O’Shea, a conductor on Union Pacific Railway, lived here in 1895 but moved in
1896 to 3 Burton Court.
Maximilian Milton
Tenesch [1870-1967] resided at this address in 1900 according to the 1900
federal census with his wife, his two young children and his brother, Thomas.
Both he and his brother were both railroad engineers. They are not listed in
the 1900 or 1901 city directory, however.
111 South [Sixth] Fifth
west
A wooden one-story
building listed as a store was at this address according to the 1889 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map. This was the location of Harry F Evans’ Grocery Store
The West End Grocery
Store
In 1882 Harry F. Evans [1843-1914] leased from
James Moyle a parcel of land on the west side of the north half of Lot five. He
paid $60 annually for the property on which he built the West Side Grocery
store at 111 South and his residence at 571 West First South.
105 South [Sixth] Fifth west and 571 West First South
Located at the northwest
corner of Block 64, the 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed large one-story
adobe dwelling at this address. This was the same dwelling that was later
renumbered as 571 West First South.
The 1883 city directory
listed Harry Evans as having a general merchandise at 111South Fifth West
residing at 105 South Fifth West. The 1888 listed H.F Evan’s West End
Store at 111 South Fifth Street and H.F. Evans as a storekeeper at 105 South
Fifth West. The 1890 city directory listed “Henry F Evans grocer residing
at 105 South Fifth West. By 1893 the residence of Evans was renumbered as 571 West
First South. See Chapter Seven Forgotten People.
563 West First South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a one-story adobe brick duplex at this address with a
connecting front porch. It was built on a parcel four rods by 10 rods owned by
Henry Moore [1838-1889] a native of the Isle of Man.
Henry Moore
Henry Moore bought the
property from his brother-in law James Moyle in 1886. Moore and Moyle had
married sisters, Christine Cannell Moore [1841-1902] and plural wife Margaret
Cannell Moyle.
Henry Moore died of
“paralysis” of what is called a stroke today. He did not live here, as the
family is listed as residing at 509 West First South on the corner of First
South and Fourth [Fifth] West.
His probate stated that
he had two properties in Block 64. Lot Five consisted of “Commencing at the
northeast corner of Lot Five running South ten rods [165 fee] thence west four
rods [66 feet] thence north ten rods, thence east four to the beginning.”
The property was appraised at $7000. His other parcel was in Lot Eight.
In 1892 his widow and
heirs inherited this property. Christine Moore’s nephew James H Moyle was the
administrator of the Henry Moore’s estate and had put up $18,000 as
surety.”
James R. Drennan
James R Drennen
[1867-1930] Stonecutter was a Scot immigrant who married in 1891 in Denver,
Colorado. Between the birth if a son in 1892 and a daughter in 1895 he moved
his family to Salt Lake City. In 1895 he was secretary of the Salt Lake branch
of the Stonecutter Union. The 1897 city directory listed him as residing at 563
West First South. He was living here still in 1898 but moved away by
1900.
John Nelson
Two families were listed
as living in this duplex according to the 1900 Federal census. John
Nelson was household 153 and Albert Miller was household 154.
John Nelson was a
31-year-old Swede who immigrated as an eleven-year-old boy. His
occupation was given as Railroad Hostler. A hostler was employed in a stable to
take care of horses. The family must have just recently moved to Utah as that
all three of their children were born in Wyoming between 1894 and 1899.
The 1901 city directory listed John Nelson as a “fireman for the Rio Grande
Western Railway line residing at this address. The family had moved way by
1902.
Albert C. Miller
Albert C Miller [1863-1945] was a 36-year-old Grocery
merchant in 1900 and a native of Ohio but of German ancestry. He was married
with a daughter who was born in Utah in 1895.
The 1898 city directory
listed him as partners in a store called Fikstad & Miller, residing at 563
West. He moved away from this address in 1901. Miller was in partnership
with Axel L Fikstad, and they had a grocery store at 502 West First
South.
Miller’s obituary stated
that he was a founder of St. John’s Lutheran Church and had been a resident of
Salt Lake City for 60 years when he died .” He came to Salt Lake City in 1885
and was employed with the street department.” He married Mary Bauchman in 1890
in Bellevue, Ohio and “returned to Utah where he opened grocery business.
He was later employed as a Salt Lake City engineering department foreman, a
position he held for 33 years. He was an honorary deacon of the St. John’s
Lutheran Church. employed by the city.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lot Six Block 64 Plat A
For most of the 1880s
and 1890’s the owners of Lot Six did not reside on the property but were buying
and selling it for an investment. The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map listed
only one dwelling on the entire lot. It was a one-story adobe home listed as
545 West Second South.
The Lot’s original
grantee was a man named Daniel Ellsworth who in 1864 deeded the property over
to Brigham Young as Trustee of the Mormon Church. The lot probably remained
vacant until Brigham Young sold it to Benjamin M. Harmon for $500
Benjamin Mathias Harmon
however he held onto this property however until 1888 when he and his wife Ann
Harmon sold all of Lot Six to James Glass for $5000.
James Glass [1845-1889] and his
family came to Utah from Pennsylvania about 1879. In 1882 an article about
Glass stated, “James B Glass Esq. has returned from a business trip to the
East. He visited the Studebaker factories at South bend Indiana, where he
ordered an immense stock to be forwarded to the branch house here, which he is
in charge, Mr. Glass does a very large business in this and adjoining
Territories and states.”
The 1883 city directory listed him
as the manager of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company residing at 230
West Second South. Studebakers was a carriage company.
In 1888 when the Salt Lake city
council was debating of building a sewer line
Glass was among the many businessmen in favor of the construction “Mr.
James B Glass represented $50,000 worth of property, all which wanted sewage.”
James Glass perhaps bought Lot Six
as an investment as he had no intention of living there when he bought the
property. Lot Six, according to the 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance map, contained
a single-story adobe dwelling with a wooden structure attached in the rear. The
address was given as 545 West First South.
In January 1889 James B Glass went
on a vacation to visit California where he died suddenly. “James B Glass,
manager of the Studebaker branch, leaves for California today [January 5] for a
pleasure trip, being the guest of his friend Mr. Henry Phipps, who spent a few
days in the city last week visiting with Glass. After leaving here, Mr. Phipps
and Professor Brashear viewed the total eclipse from Winnemucca, Nevada at
which point some twenty astronomers were to assemble. “During the trip to the
coast the gentlemen will visit Monterey, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, San Diego and
several other places of lesser note,
consuming three weeks.”
About three weeks after he left Salt
Lake City news reached Utah that Glass had passed away. “Yesterday [30 January
1889] morning a dispatch came over the wires from Los Angeles stating that
James B Glass of this city died at that place shortly after midnight. The death
occurred at the home of W.H. Perry, an old friend who the deceased was
visiting, but further than that no particulars could be obtained up to a late
hour last night. Mr. Glass left Salt Lake on a visit to California on the 5th
inst. And after spending a couple of weeks in San Francisco, he went to Los
Angeles. In the last letter he wrote to
his wife he intimated that he was unwell, but she did not suspect that there
was anything serious the matter with him, until Tuesday when she received a
dispatch from him stating he was sick and asking her to go to him. Mrs. Glass
took the first train to the west, but it was too late and yesterday a dispatch was sent from here
to her to Palisades with the sad news of her husband’s death.”
“James B Glass was born at
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1847 and was there for only 42 years of age at the
time of his death. He came to this city about ten years ago as manager of the
local branch of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company and held that
position ever since.”
“ In business circles Mr. Glass has
made scores of friends and his popularity is only equaled by his success. He
was a thoroughly good citizen and one whom poor and rich alike will mourn. In
the social world he was also a favorite, his kind disposition and gentlemanly
address having made him a man worth knowing, one whose society was sought by
all. In the great sorrow which has come to them Mrs. Glass and her family will
have the deepest sympathy of all.”
“Mr. Glass was formerly a resident
of Los Angeles, and it is possible that he will be buried there by the side of
his father and sister, but this has not yet been decided upon.”
James Glass left his wife Louise a
life insurance policy that paid out $13,464 ,besides his various property. She
later left Utah and moved to Los Angeles but not before, as administrator of
his estate in 1889 sold Lot Six to Frederick Mayol for $8200.
John Allcock
In all probabilities the
property was rented out until it was sold in 1888. One such renter may have
been John Allcock [1846-1913] . The 1880 federal census listed John Allcock as
residing in household 135 next to Thomas James Brown who was enumerated as
household 136. It is known that Brown resided in Lot Seven, so it is probable
that Allcock was living in Lot Six. He was a 34-year-old machinist and native
of England. The 1879 city directory mentioned him as a machinist residing
on the southeast corner First South and Fifth West. Later City directories
showed he had moved away not long after this census was taken. The 1883 city
directory listed him residing on Pear Street.
Frederick Mayol
[1840-1913]
Frederick Mayol was a
native of France who came to the United States before 1861 when he
enlisted in the 1st Regiment, Missouri Light Artillery of the Union Army
on the 18th of September 1861. After the war he went west to Colorado
where he married for the first time in 1869. He was married and divorced
several times over his lifetime.
In the 1880 federal
census, he listed his occupation as “stock raiser and farmer” while
living in Ouray, Colorado where he
became a naturalized citizen in 1882.
In 1889 Mayol bought Lot
Six for $8200 which he held as an investment as that there’s no record of him ever
residing there. He was mentioned as staying at the White House Hotel in
December 1889. He went back and forth between Salt Lake City and Ouray,
Colorado however the 1894 city directory listed Frederick Mayol as a “miner”,
residing at 227 South West Temple and in that year he his wife Ida Mayol sold
all of Lot Six to T.T Kelley and his wife Nelly for $6000. As the nation
was in an economic recession known as the Panic of 1893, the property may have
lost some of its value. He died in 1913 at Reno Nevada.
T. T. Kelley
T. T. Kelley and his
wife are not found in any of the Salt Lake Directories and must not have been
locals. They were most likely speculators as they did not own the property for
long and records show that they turned around and sold Lot Six to Thomas H. Lee
for $3600 on September 6 which was considerably less than what they paid for
it. Three years later Thomas Lee was killed in a tragic railroad
accident. He never lived here but bought it for an investment after T.T. Kelley
had moved to Oregon.
Street Addresses for Lot
Six Block 64 Plat A
545 West First South
Thomas H. Lee
[1849-1897] was listed in the 1880 federal census as a 30 years old “railroad
man” residing in Dallas, Texas. He was a native of Indiana. His
19-year-old wife Mary “Adah” Coke Lee was a native of Texas. Her father had
died during the Civil War.
Thomas Lee’s three
children were all born in different States. Ruby Lee was born 1881 in
Texas, Howard Lee was born 1884 in Salt Lake City, and Thomas Lee Junior in
1888 in Colorado. The Adah Coke Lee died young leaving her three children
motherless and in the care of their maternal grandmother who continued to live
with Thomas Lee and her grandchildren.
His gruesome accidental
death in 1897 was reported in Salt Lake Newspapers. “An Awful Death Roadmaster
Lee of the Western Cut In two. Engine on which He was Riding was Derailed and
He was Caught Beneath-Body Brought to Salt Lake.”
“By a deplorable
accident Sunday afternoon [July 18], General Roadmaster Thomas H. Lee of the
Rio Grande Western met his death on that road. The sad occurrence has cast a
gloom over the railroad fraternity generally for Tom Lee was undoubtedly one of
the most popular men in the service. He was a man of great efficiency, and his
loss will be a hard one to replace by the company, all the officials having
implicit trust in the roadmaster.”
“Deceased was a Mason
and Knight Templar, and the funeral will be held this afternoon [July 20]
at 3 o’clock from the Masonic hall.”
“Thomas H Lee was a widower,
but he leaves a daughter and two younger boys. His wife’s mother and an aunt
lived with him at his home 716 Fourth [Fifth] Street.”
“Thomas H Lee was widely
known throughout the west as a roadmaster on various lines. He was 48 years old
on April 3rd last and about thirty years he had served in
Railroads. In 1870 he was roadmaster of the Kansas Pacific when W. H. Bancroft
was trainmaster of the line.”
“He was on the Denver
& Rio Grande at Salida for years and came to the Rio Grande Western seven years
ago.”
“The details of the
accident which resulted in his death are as follows: Train No 3, engineer
Maxwell, was coming west on Sunday afternoon against a heavy wind and
sandstorm. Lee was riding in the cab, as had been his habit. Five miles west of
Green River the train ran into a drift of sand which instantly derailed the
engine and it fell to the left, smashing the framework and burying Lee, who was
on that side. The engine had to be picked up before the body could be
recovered. It was seen that death must have been instantaneous for the body was
bruised and mutilated in a terrible manner, the body being literally cut in
two. Engineer Maxwell was hurt but not seriously, and he will be around again
in a week. The fireman escaped without a scratch.”
“The body of Mr. Lee was
brought to the city yesterday morning early and taken to Evans undertaking
rooms where it was prepared for funeral today. The internment will be in the
Masonic vault at Mt. Olivet.
“The funeral serviced
over the remains of Thomas H. Lee, late general roadmaster of the Rio Grande
Western Railway will be held in Masonic Hall at 3 p.m. Tuesday , July 20,
[1897] under the auspices of the Utah commandery No. 1 Knights Templar, of
which deceased was a member. All sir knights and friends invited to attend.
Interment Mount Olivet.”
Thomas Lee’s
mother-in-law Mary D. Coke was appointed guardian of her orphaned grandchildren
children and administratrix of Thomas H Lee’s estate. In 1898 Mary Coke
received money from the Rio Grande Western for the death of Thomas Lee. “Judge Hiles has granted permission to Mary D
Coke, administrator of the estate of Thomas H. Lee, deceased, to accept $5,000
from the Rio Grande Western Railway company in full for the death of Lee, who
was kicked in an accident on the road. The accident occurred in Emery County on
July 18, 1897.”
The 1898 map showed that
the property still had not been developed. It still had the adobe structure now
with three additional wooden add on structures. The attached room to the side of
the adobe building was one and a half stories but all the others were one
story. There were no additional barns, sheds, or outhouses on the property and
in 1898 the property did not contain an address.
After the death of Thomas
Lee his sons Howard W Lee [1885-?] and Thomas H. Lee [1888-1912] had an
undivided two-thirds of Lot Six in block 64 plat A, along with their sister
Ruby Lee’s [1881-1951] one-third.
When Ruby Lee
turned 21 [1902] she was appointed guardian of her younger brothers and
in 1908 sold all of lot Six to A.H. Burell and John M Evans who bought it as
land agents for the Citizen Investment Company which was the name of Dora Bell
Topham’s organization which was buying up property in Block 64 in order to
build the Red-Light Stockade.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lot Seven Block 64 Plat
A
Thomas James Brown was
one of the original grantees for the western half of Lot Seven while M.C and
John M Moody had the other half. Amos C Duel had an partial interest in Lot
Seven also. In 1872 John M. Moody sold to William Vaughn Morris his eastern
half of the Lot Seven.
The property of William
V Morris was the east half of Lot 7 block 64 plat A and also included a portion
of Lot eight, commencing at the northeast corner of Lot Seven “running
thence east one rod thence south eight rods thence west 1 rod thence
north 8 rods to beginning.
Thomas James Brown
[1830-1905] was the son of Charles and Mary Arey Brown. He was also the brother
of Mary E. Brown Jones the widow of Bishop Nathaniel V Jones. Mary Arey
Brown’s first husband, Charles Brown,
died in 1839 and she then married Loren Whiting Babbitt at Nauvoo, Illinois in
1846. He later left the Utah church for the Restoration Church of Iowa.
William Vaughn Morris [1821-1878]
was a Welsh Mormon immigrant to Utah who was a noted interior designer and
artist. In 1867 he resided between
Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth [Sixth] West. The 1870 census indicated that he had
two wives Hannah [Annie] and Nancy and
had $2000 in real estate & $600 in personal property. He was household 121
next to Thomas J Brown.
Street Addresses for Lot
Seven Block 64 Plat A
533 and 531 West First
South
A one-story adobe dwelling
was 80 feet to the east of the home at 545 West according to the 1889 Sanborn
Fire Insurance Map. By 1898 it had been replaced with a two-story brick duplex
that was 34 feet wide. The duplex had the address of 533 West and 531 West and
was a two-story wooden porch was at the back of the duplex.
The 1894 city directory listed Augustus R Carter
“mining” at this address.
Norman W. MacLeod
Norman W. McLeod was a journalist who also was
an editor of several small local papers over the course of several years, none
of which seemed to be successful. He lived for a brief time at 533 West First
South along with other family members. See Norman McLeod in Chapter Seven
Forgotten People
531 West First South
This address was the
east half of the duplex home. 1893 for rent Newly furnished rooms for rent 531
West First South next Carter’s Terrace
Rev. Herman Hoffman
In 1899 a Lutheran
Pastor named Rev. Herman Hoffman was minister to the German Lutheran Mission in
the city. He was relieved by a new
pastor, named Rev. J Graebrner of St. Louis, son of Prof. Graebner of
Concordia Seminary St. Louis. The new pastor was only 22 years old, and the
local pulpit is the first one he ever filled. Rev. Herman Hoffmann left for Milwaukee
to “join his family where he will await another call. Hoffman has been an
earnest worker.”
The 1900 Federal
census stated Rev. Hoffman he was boarding with the family of David
Krauss Hoffman was born Jan 1840 in Germany and had emigrated to the United
States in 1864 was a minister.
David Krauss
The 1900 Federal census
enumerated 62-year-old David Krauss [Cross] family at this address. His
wife Amelia was 49 years. They were also German emigrants having arrived in
1872. They were a childless couple and had been married 23 years . He was
a mining expert. Both Knauss and the Hoffman men had moved away by 1901
The 1905 city directory
listed Augustus R Carter as “rooming” at 531 West First South.
CARTER TERRACE
Carter Terrace was
street on which a series of ten brick connected one-story row houses were built
for Augustus R Carter circa 1891. The entrance to Carter Terrace was from First
South, west of 533 West First South. The homes were 14 feet wide by 34 feet in
length with a brick partition between each residence. They all seemed to be
identical 5 room homes.
The city directories
showed that many of the row houses were occupied by railroad men and their
families however a list of all the public-school teachers within Salt Lake
published in 1894 also showed that eight female schoolteachers also made Carter
Terrace their home.
1 Carter Terrace
Wilbur K. Perkins
The 1895-1896 city
directory listed a druggist named Wilbur K. Perkins [1854-1921] as a
resident of 1 Carter Terrace. In 1897 his wife Mrs. Rebecca Perkins, a
music teacher resided there. In 1897 an auction of “a lot of desirable carpets
and rugs, bedroom set, folding bed, center tables, gas rage, in perfect order,
heating stoves, bentwood and fancy rockers, parlor desk, 8-foot dining table,
several good trunks, beds and bedding lot homemade preserves, crockery and
glassware” was held at this address.
Vernon Smith Hardy
The 1900 federal census
enumerated 27-year-old Vernon S Hardy [1873- 1957] as renting this residence.
Living with him was his 30-year-old brother Ernest Hardy and their widowed
mother 69-year-old Mary A Hardy, the mother of six children but only the two
sons were still alive in 1900. She was the widow of John T Hardy. The
mother was from England and emigrated in 1859 while her two sons were born in
Utah. Vernon was a traveling salesman while Ernest was a “laborer at
mines.
Vernon Hardy had worked
as an agent for the Salt Aire resort on the Great Salt Like. In May 1897, “the
Salt Aire management, through its excursion agent, Vernon Hardy, has completed
some excursion contracts for the coming season.”
“ Vernon Hardy the
popular Salt Air representative, returned last night [July 5] from Denver where
he has been securing attractions for the famous resort.”
In October 1897 he was
called as witness in the sensation seduction trial of Thomas Kearns
who was accused of seducing Eula Wray and being blackmailed by William A.
Hobbs. Hardy was called to testify regarding his knowledge of train
schedules for Salt Air and the Garfield Beach. He said he was in the
employ of the Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railway Company at the time of his
testimony.
In 1898 both
Vernon and Ernest Hardy worked for the Intermountain Salt Company and in
1901-1902 Vernon S Hardy was a travel agent for the Inland Crystal Salt Company
residing with his mother at No. 1 Carter Terrace. The 1903 city directory still
listed the widow Mary Hardy at this address, but her son Vernon had moved to
Portland Oregon. By 1904 Mary Hardy had moved away also.
2 Carter Terrace
Frank N Porter and Emma
Porter
In 1893 Mrs. Hattie Mock
was hired as a schoolteacher in the Fourteenth School. In 1894 she gave
her address as No 2 Carter Terrace. The 1894 city directory also listed Mrs.
Hattie Mock as a Fourth-Grade school teacher at the Fourteenth School
which was located on Second [Third] West between First and second South.
Also at this same
address was Emma E Porter, wife of Frank N Porter [1872-1895]. She who was a
Franklin school teacher, teaching “beginners” or what we would call
Kindergarten today. Franklin School was on the corner of Second South and
Seventh [Eight] West. Mrs. Mock and Mrs. Porter may have been sisters in law.
Frank and Emma
Porter were married in 1890 but she died in 1894 a few days after giving birth.
Her funeral was held at this residence in November 1894.
In 1895, nearly six
months after the death of his wife, Frank N. Porter “a brakeman in the employ
of the Rio Grande Western, lost his life at Bingham Junction at 2 o’clock
yesterday [May 15] morning while engaged in making up a train.”
“Porter was coupling
cars when his foot caught in a frog and being unable to release it, he was
thrown to the ground, and sixteen cars passed over him. The cars ran lengthwise
of the body, which was mangled beyond description. The remains of the
unfortunate man were brought to this city and taken to the undertaking rooms of
Joseph William Taylor, who will conduct the funeral.”
Porter was a young man
of about 35 years and lost his wife some time last year. She left a little baby
in his care, which is now a double orphan. His mother resides in the city and
is prostrated over the accident.”
The funeral will be
conducted today at the late home No. 2 Carter Terrace on West First South
Street. Enterprise Lodge I.O.O. F will have charge of the ceremony. The
deceased was a member of the order in Butler, Indiana, his former home. The
remains will be interred at Mt. Olivet. The inquest resulted in a verdict in
accordance with the above facts.”
Arries Brothers
Mansfield H Arries
[1859-1902] and his brother William A Arries [1867-1940] lived at this address
after the Porters resided here in 1898.
Mansfield Arries was a conductor for the Rio Grande Western Railway and his
brother a brakeman for the Rio Grande Western Railway. Mansfield Arries
was a married man with infants in the home at the time. They had moved away by
1899.
The Hardy Family
1899 The Vernon S Hardy
family resided in this cottage in 1899 before moving to No 1 .
William F Lucus
The 1900 federal census listed 35-year-old
William F Lucus as residing here with his 25-year-old wife Mary and a
six-year-old daughter who was born in Idaho. He was a “saddler” by trade.
This family had moved away by 1901 to British Columbia, Canada.
3 Carter Terrace
William F Seibert
The 1900 federal census
enumerated 39-year-old William F Seibert [1858-1943] and his wife Frances as a
childless couple living at this address. Neither of them were native to Utah.
He was a foreman in “Produce” according to the census and in 1901 they had
moved next door to No. 4 Carter Terrace where the city directory noted he
worked as a shipping clerk for Wood Grocer and Produce Company. His
obituary stated “during earlier years was a produce salesman. He had left Utah
for a while but returned by 1935.
His wife Frances Seibert
died in 1924 and her obituary stated she had been a resident of Salt Lake City
for 32 years. She was buried in Illinois, however. William Siebert’s obituary
stated his body was to be shipped back to Illinois for burial, but his family
must have changed their mind as he was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Salt
Lake.
4 Carter Terrace
Clara Shaw
This address was
advertised in 1893 as a “5 room House, Hot and Cold water, bath, closet and
range. Apply at No. 4 Carter Terrace 533 West First south. In 1893 Clara Shaw [1873-1897] was a 2nd
grade schoolteacher in the Thirteen School located at Second South between
State and Second East. When the names and addresses of all public-School
teachers were published by the Salt Lake Herald in January 1894, Clara
Shaw was listed as a second and third grade teacher at the Thirteen School She
was also listed as living at 4 Carter Terrace, West First South. In 1894
she was also the assistant principal at the same school with a salary of
$570.
The 1880 federal census
enumerating Clara Shaw her as residing in Scipio, Millard County, Utah with her
mother who was a doctor. The family was from Massachusetts where the youngest
sister was born in 1876.
Clara Shaw had moved
away from this address by 1895 and had married Henry Arthur Schweikhart
in February 1897. He was a partner in a Hardware Store in Salt Lake City. She
died at Long Beach, California in March 1897 probably on her honeymoon.
Her Salt Lake obituary stated “Mrs. Schweikhart was formerly a teacher in the
city schools. She was buried in Long Beach.
5 Carter Terrace
J. B. Hutchinson
In September 1895 J. B.
Hutchinson of Price Utah, age 33, years died at No. 5 Carter’s Terrace.
He had been the postmaster at Price, Carbon County, Utah.
6 Carter Terrace
Frank Holzheimer
In 1893 Franklin
Hiram Holzheimer [1867-1944], “a well-known young man”, resided at this
address. He had been nominated for city council in the Second Precinct on the
Liberal ticket and came within forty-one votes of being elected. He had been
the claims agent for the Rio Grande Western Railroad but left to become a
lawyer at a college in Ann Arbor Michigan .
His mother-in-law Mrs.
E. [Emma] Meade, who died at the age of 53 in February 1893, had her funeral
held “from the residence of her daughter Mrs. F.H. [Ellen M. “Nellie Meade]
Holzheimer, No. 6 Carter Terrace, First South between Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth
[Sixth] West at 2 p.m. Feb 11. in the home.” The 1894 city directory
stated Holzheimer “moved to New York City.”
Martin Luther
Bernhisel
The 1894 city directory
listed “M Bernhisel, Drugs Toilet Articles and Cigars at 235 West Second
South and residing at 6 Carter Terrace. Martin L Bernhisel [1860-1913]
was the son of Utah Territorial Congressman, physician, and polygamist John M.
Bernhisel. His father also served as a regent of the University of Utah, until
his death at age 82.
Martin Bernhisel’s wife Jane
Richardson was 8 years older than him, and she was the widow of James Irvine
when she married Bernhisel in 1886.
In 1896 Jane Bernhisel,
while living at Carter Terrace, was helping a 16-year-old girl named Fannie
Perkins, “who ran away from an abusive stepmother.” Fannie Perkins “was staying
with Jane Bernhisel when the girl was arrested and brought to court for being
“incorrigible”. Her stepmother claimed that she had the habit of staying out
late at night and would not remain at home and her conduct was “very
unladylike”. Fannie Perkins claimed that her stepmother was “doing all in her
power to send me to reform school” and that she had done nothing wrong.
It appeared that Martin
and Jane Bernhisel separated but never divorced by 1900. Jane Bernhisel was
living in the Avenues while he had moved to Sandy, Utah. She died in 1912 of
pneumonia while Martin Bernhisel died in 1913 of an “accidental overdose of
Chloroform.
“Martin L
Bernhisel, veteran druggist, died at 3 o’clock this afternoon [July 12] in his
store of an overdose of chloroform. During a disordered condition of the nerves
Mr. Bernhisel is said to have inhaled chloroform through a sponge, a habit he
is said to have pursued for many years.”
“Van Mitchell, a clerk,
was in the store when Bernhisel died. He saw the druggist pour chloroform on a
sponge and press it against his nostrils. He inhaled deeply and suddenly
appeared to fall asleep in a chair. Soon his arms fell to his sides and the
head tilted forward, the chin resting on the breast. The clerk became alarmed
and called physicians.”
“Any theory that
Bernhisel committed suicide, physicians who knew him regard with little
interest, having known he was addicted to the chloroform habit. After an
investigation, in which it was found the heart had been affected by an overdose
of chloroform, the body was removed to the Sandy mortuary of Undertaker S. M.
Taylor.”
“Martin L Bernhisel was
born in Salt Lake September 19, 1860, the son of Dr. John M Bernhisel, one of
the first physicians to settle in Salt Lake Valley. Upon finishing his
education in the schools of Salt Lake, Mr. Bernhisel entered the Godbe-Pitt
apothecary store where he learned the druggist’s profession. He opened a drug
store at Sandy more than a dozen years ago.”
The family left this
address by 1897 when an auction was held of “ 3 ply carpets and rugs,
parlor set, rockers, bedroom sets, elegant 6-hole steel range with reservoir in
perfect order, extension table, fine glass door, kitchen cupboard, dining
chairs, refrigerator, bookcase, folding bed, lot fruit jars etc.”
James Renwick Osborne
The 1899 City Directory
listed James Renwick Osborn [1868-1951] as a timekeeper in the
superintendent’s office of the Oregon Short Line Railroad and residing
at 6 Carter Terrace. Linea Vera Sathman Osborne, his Norwegian wife
was a member of the Lutheran church and resided here in 1898 The
couple were married in 1897 but had moved away from this
address by 1900.
Andrew Joseph Cronin
The 1900 federal census
listed Andrew J Cronin and his wife Libby Sullivan Cronin residing
here. The couple moved away in 1902. See 546 West Third South Duplex on Block
63 for more on Andrew Joseph Cronin. See The Cronin Family
7 Carter Terrace
Albert Earl Coonrod
In 1893 A.E. Coonrod
[1851-1922] and his wife Blanche Elizabeth Burleigh Coonrod lived at this
address. Their infant daughter Hazel died of pneumonia only 26 days old in
February 1892 at this address indicating the houses were being occupied by that
year.
The 1899 City Directory
had Albert E. Coonrod still residing at this address as a conductor for the
Oregon Short Line. The couple separated about 1899, and Albert Earl
Coonrod moved to Montana, while his wife and three other daughters remained in
Salt Lake. By 1900 Coonrod had relocated to Great Falls, Montana where he was
still a conductor. His wife and three daughters were in Salt Lake City living
with her parents in the Avenues.
Albert Coonrod remained
in Montana for the rest of his life, while his wife and daughters moved to
Alameda California. His obituary stated “When Coonrod first came west he was a
miner at Leadville, Colo. He has served as passenger and freight train
conductor, his experience being on the Great Northern, Oregon Short Line and
Denver & Rio Grande. In his earlier years Coonrod served an enlistment
period in the regular army and was stationed in Utah. Coonrod's death was
undoubtedly due to heart failure.”
In 1899, after the
Coonrods vacated the home, an auction at this address listed “very nearly
new furniture etc. carpets and rugs, wicker and other rockers good matting iron
bed and springs, mattresses fine center table, extra dressers and commodes,
music stand, dining table and chairs, fine China, steel range cooking utensils.”
Albert Lucien Rivers
Albert L Rivers
[1840-1919] and his wife Martha Myers Rivers resided at this address according
to the 1900 federal census. He was a 61-year-old “print merchant from
Massachusetts . His 27-year-old married son George A Rivers and his wife Minnie
Jones also lived within the residence. George and Minnie were newlyweds. George
Rivers was a United States postal clerk.
Both father and son had moved away by 1901. In 1900 another auction at this
location sold the “content of 5 room well-furnished house including Home
Comfort range.”
8 Carter terrace
Winthrop Chenery Buck
Winthrop C Buck [1856-1930] was a brakeman and
conductor for Union Pacific while he resided at this location from 1894
until 1900. He was injured in 1898 in a train accident.
“Last Saturday [14 May
1898] afternoon, while the freight crew of the Short Line was switching at
Ironton, the engine derailed, the wheels on one side sinking into the earth,
and the engine turning over on its side. Conductor W.C Buck was on the engine
with the engineer and fireman and as the engine left the track, he jumped off
in so doing broke his left leg in several places below the knee.”
“Evidently, he did not
realize for a moment he was hurt and jumped up and tried to walk thus forcing
the splintered bones into the flesh. The regular passenger train at Silver City
was signaled and went to the rescue, bringing the injured man to Eureka, where
Dr. field dressed the wounds temporarily and accompanied the unfortunate man to
Salt Lake where was taken to the hospital. It was then found that t would be
necessary to amputate the leg just below the knee and the operation was
performed by Drs. Pinkerton and Field.”
Winthrop Buck loss
of a leg did not prevent him and his wife from going to Alaska with Augustus R
Carter’s goldmine operation. In May 1900, “Mr. and Mrs. W.C Buck members of the
Utah-Alaska Mining Company left for Seattle yesterday [16 May] from whence they
will sail for Cape Nome on the 25th.
An article from August
1900 mentioned the Bucks in Alaska. “Mr. Buck has had considerable trouble with
his gasoline engine, but has finally made a trail run, and the cleanup is in
the hands of expert Snell. Mr. Buck has a large sized Mitchell rocker. Mrs.
Buck and Miss Fletcher, hidden under long rubber coats and over high rubber
boots were interesting examples of what helpless creatures women become when
they go gold crazy. They rocked the rocker with the same ease and grace that
they would a baby cradle, but no tender voice chanted even a note of the lullaby.
After Augustus R Carter left Alaska the
management of the company in Nome was turned over temporarily to Prince Albert
Snell, a “mining expert”, “who will return to the states with W.C Buck
and wife, and probably R.H. Nicholls of Murray about Oct 1.”
The 1901 city directory stated he moved away to
Seattle Washington but returned before 1908 when the City directory stated he
lived at the Wilson Hotel in Salt Lake City as a miner. is wife was
living in San Francisco in 1910. He died as an indigent in the county infirmary
and his body given to the University of Utah.
James S Barr
The 1900 federal census
enumerated 35-year-old James S Barr was a traveling salesman recently
married to 17-year-old Myrtle Hoster. His married sister-in-law Angie
Hoster lived with them. The family moved away by 1901.
9 Carter Terrace
In 1897 An auction
with a lot of desirable household goods was sold at this address. “Moquet and
Brussels carpets and rugs, upholstered couch and rockers, very nice oak and
cherry center tables, dining table and chairs, fine refrigerator, elegant oak
bedroom set , springs and mattresses, heating stove, crockery and glassware,
Goods are nice and clean.”
William W Sanders
The 1900 Federal census
listed the family of William W. Sanders at this address. He was a
44-year-old “dairyman” by occupation. He and his wife were born outside of
Utah, but all their three children were born in Utah starting in 1888.
The 1901 city directory listed him as president of the Keystone Dairy and Creamery
and had moved away from this address.
10 Carter Terrace
Celia and Lou Murphy
Celia and Lou Murphy
were public school teachers who lived at this address at one time. Their
relationship to one another is unknown and more is known about Lou than Celia.
The 1894 city directory
listed Celia as Celia Irene Murphy and listed Lou Murphy as a teacher at the
Franklin School. A publication of the names of public-school teachers in
1894 showed Celia Murphy as third grade schoolteacher at Wasatch School
located on the corner of South Temple and R Street. She lived with Lou Murphy
also a third grade School teacher at Jackson School located between First North
between Sixth [Seventh] and Seventh [Eight] West.
In 1895, “Miss
Celia Murphy, for some time connected with the schools of this city, has been
tendered a lucrative position in Chicago, and will leave for that city in the
summer vacation.” She must not have accepted the position as she was back at
the Wasatch School in the fall of 1896 making a salary of $573 a year.
The 1898 city directory
still listed Celia Murphy as a teacher “boarding’ at 10 Carter Terrace although
by that date ,“Lou Murphy had moved out. By 1899 Celia Murphy was also
gone.
In 1892 “Miss Lou
Murphy” had been assigned to Fourteenth school at a salary of $60 per month.
The committee that recommended her for the position hired for the third and
fourth grades. The 1893 city director
listed Lou Murphy as a teacher in the 14th School and boarding at
349 West North Temple.
Newspapers commented
more on Lou Murphy than Celia often reporting on where she was spending her
summer vacations like in Portland or in Denver, which was referred to as her
hometown. She left Salt Lake City schools and moved to Eureka, Utah where she
taught well into the Twentieth Century. An article mentioned in 1897, “
Miss Lou Murphy of this city [Salt Lake] is teaching in the schools of Eureka
and is having a successful term.”
Another mention stated
in 1898 “Miss Lou Murphy who has taught in Eureka during the past week is
visiting friends. She will spend her vacation at her home in Denver.
Martin Siegel
The 1900 federal census
enumerated 32-year-old Martin Siegel’s family as residing here. He was a
German emigrant having come in 1890 and worked as a Railroad Machinist. He and
his wife both emigrated from Germany in 1890 having first settled in
North Dakota where their six children were born, however only 3 were still
alive in 1900. The youngest was born in 1895 so the family came to Utah after
that time. The family had moved out of Salt Lake City by 1901.
523 West First South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a one-story adobe dwelling with a wraparound wooden porch,
bounding the front and east side of the house. Twenty-one feet behind
this home of the same parcel was a two-story adobe dwelling with an outside
stair most likely the home of Mr. Nancy Cook Morris.
Charles F. Swinger
The family of Charles
Swinger [1860-1925] lived at this address in 1892 and 1893. He was a German
emigrant who worked as a Conductor for the Rio Grande Western Railroad.
In 1892 his daughter suffered an accident at the hands of an older sibling.
One account from the
Salt Lake Herald stated the sibling was her sister and another from the Salt
Tribune said it was her brother. The 1900 federal census indicates that the
children involved were John Swinger, who was 9 years old in ,1892. and May
Swinger who was about 6 years old in 1892.
“Two Fingers Chopped
Off. Bad accident to an Eight-Year-Old Child Last Night [4 November 1892] Last
evening two little girls of Charles Swinger, who lives on West First Street
went out to chop some kindling. The older one raised the axe, and as she did
so, the younger one stooped down to pick up a stick. As the she did so the axe
descended, barely missing the little one’s head, and severing two fingers.
Amputation was found to be necessary, and Dr. Parkinson attended to the
injuries.”
“A painful accident and
one which will disfigure the unfortunate victim of life, befell the little
daughter of Mr. Swinger, who resides at 523 West First Street, last evening.
She was holding the block for her little brother to chop kindling on and
slipped her hand under the hatchet as it descended. Two fingers were cut off
and a third hangs only by a thread.”
The family moved to 121
South Fifth [Sixth] West by 1894 and lived there until 1897.
A Chinese Laundry man named Wah Lee was in
court in September 1894 charged with assaulting Willie Swinger who with other
youths had been throwing rocks at his house. William Swinger was nearly
13-year-old at the time. The Charles Swinger family were living at 125 South
Fifth [Sixth] West in block 64 at the time.
The family was not listed in the city
directory for that year and 1898. They returned in 1899 and were listed at 125
South Fifth [Sixth] West where the family was enumerated in the 1900 federal
census. this family had moved to 125 South Fifth [Sixth West]. After 1901 the
family moved away and were by 1910 in Baker, Oregon.
Charles Swinger was the
brother-in-law of David Eccles, the banker and businessman of Ogden, founder of
the Eccles fortune.
Mrs. Nancy Cook Morris
The widow of William Vaughn Morris, Nancy Morris
[1833-1909] was a native of England, aged 64 years old in 1900 living
with her 27-year-old son Eli E Morris [1873-1940] who was a sign painter. Nancy
Cook Morris was the plural wife of William Vaughn Morris [1821-1878] whom she
married in April 1862. She was the mother of three daughters Hannah Barbara
"Annie" Morris, Catherine V Morris, Agnes C Morris and only one son
Eli Elias Morris.
The 1901 city directory listed her as
boarding at this address residing with her son Eli Morris, painter. By 1905 she
moved away from this residence to 814 West First South street, where she at the
age of 76. Her funeral was held in the Fifteenth ward meetinghouse.
Eli Elias Morris
Eli Elias
Morris[18973-1940] resided at 523 West with his mother until 1904 and worked
for Charles Peterson’s sign company. Eli E. Morris never married and after his
mother’s death moved to Ogden and made his residence there in various hotels in
the city. In 1917 he was hired by the Redfield-King “originators,
designers, and builders of high-grade Electric Sign Displays. They announced
”Eli Morris Well know Utah Sign Painter and Artist has been added to our
staff.”
His obituary stated his
residence was the Savoy Apartments on Twenty-Five Street and was a “sign
painter and decorator. A member of Morris-Gibby sign company and a member of
the sign painters’ union. Lionel Gibby.
“Eli Morris - OGDEN -
Eli Morris, 67, of 324 Twenty-fifth street, Ogden sign painter and decorator,
died early Thursday in an Ogden hospital following a paralytic stroke. Mr.
Morris was a native of Ogden. He had been a member of Morris-Gibby sign company
for a number of years and was a member of the sign painters' union.”
He was the fourth child
and only son born to William Vaughan Morris and Nancy Cook.
Daniel Parker
The 1900 Federal Census
enumerated two heads of households at this address. One was Nancy Morris the
widow of William Vaughn Morris and the other was the family of her son-in-law
Daniel Parker.
In 1899, a “defective
flue caused the fire department a run to 523 West First South in a
cottage owned by W. V Morris and occupied by Dan Porter. The loss was nominal.”
Daniel Parker
[1866-1932] was enumerated as the 161st head of household
visited in the Second Precinct of the 1900 federal census. He was 34 years old
and a native of Utah as was his wife Hannah Barbara “Annie” Morris Parker
[1866-1931]. They had six children within their household between the ages of
11 and a two-month-old newborn. Eventually they had two more children. He
listed his occupation as a “day laborer” and was renting his home from
Nancy Morris who was listed as owning the residence.
The 1901 city directory listed Daniel Parker
as a foreman for the Street Department still residing at this address. By
1903 he was listed as a deputy inspector. By 1904 the family had moved away to
751 South Eight [Ninth] West.
Daniel Parker and his
wife Annie died a year apart from each other in 1931 and 1932. “ Mrs.
Annie Morris Parker, 64, a native of Salt Lake and an active Church worker,
died Friday evening [20 March 1931] at 751 South Eighth [West]. She was the
wife of Daniel Parker, a veteran streetcar motorman. Mrs. Parker was born in
Salt Lake, April 16, 1866, a daughter of William V. and Mandy [should be Nancy]
Cook Morris and has resided here since. She married Mr. Parker Oct. 26, 1887,
in the Logan Temple. The couple have resided in the Twenty-sixth Ward for the
past 28 years, where Mrs. Parker had been active in Relief Society work.”
“Funeral services for
Daniel Parker, 65, of 851 Arapahoe Street, for the last 26 years a streetcar
operator for the Utah Light and Traction company, will be conducted Thursday at
2 p.m. from the L.D.S. Twenty-sixth ward chapel. Burial will take place in the
City cemetery. Mr. Parker was born in Salt Lake, March 3, 1866, a son of Joshua
and Drucilla Hartley Parker, Utah hand cart pioneers. His first wife, Mrs.
Annie Morris Parker, died March 20, 1931. He was a member of the high priests'
quorum of the Twenty-sixth ward.”
521 West First South
Godfried Fencher
Godfried Fencher was
listed as living at this address in 1895 according to a roster of Republican
voters however he’s not found in any city directories.
William Peake
William Peake was
residing in Ogden in 1895 as a boilermaker. The 1899 city directory listed him
as residing at No. 6 Denver Court in Block 63 however an article form
July 1899 stated he lived at 521 West First South.
“Held Up for a dollar.
William Peake’s Experience Last Night. Met a Tall Slim man at 11 o’clock Last
night [July 22] , who knocked Him Unconscious. William Peake a boiler maker who
lives at 521 West First South Street was on his way to call on a friend at 10
o’clock last night, when he was held up near Pioneer Square by a tall, slim
man. Peake when commanded to throw up his hands, commenced to fight, when he
was dealt a severe blow on the nose, badly lacerating that member, and stunning
him for a short time. When he recovered, he found himself minus a dollar. He
made his way to police headquarters where he reported the occurrence, dressed
his proboscis, and left for home.”
By 1900 Peake had
moved to the rear of 229 South Fourth [Fifth] West and was a “helper” on the
Rio Grande Western.
Michael Foster
The 1900 federal Census
listed three households at this address, that of Michael Foster, James King,
and George A Langston consisting of thirteen people.
Michael Foster
[1844-1913] was a 56-year-old day laborer from England, married for 36 years
toa woman named Hannah, both who emigrated from England in 1884.
They were the parents of ten children however in 1900 only 2 were still living.
Their 21-year-old married son, John M Foster and their daughter in law Mary C
Foster and infant grandson also resided in the residence. By 1901 both Michael Foster and his son had moved away
from this address. The 1901 city directory listed Michael Foster as a harness
cleaner for the Salt Lake Livery and Transportation Company.
Two roomers were included
within the Foster’s home. They were twenty-year-old James King and 12-year-old
Fanny E. King. Both John M Foster and James King gave their occupations
as “day laborers” and Utah natives. James King had moved from Salt Lake City by
1901
George A. Langston
George A Langston was a
35-year-old married man and a native of Georgia. His wife Lillian was a native
of Utah and mother of three children under the age of three year. His widowed
55-year-old mother Levina J. Langston as lived with the home. He was a “coach
painter” by occupation. The 1901 city directory Langston still at 521
West First South working as a painter for the Rio Grande Western railway.
His mother had died 10 November 1900 age 55. Alfred Langston, probably a
brother, was also a painter and resided in the rear of 521 West First South
An article in from 1898
mentioned his father, “elder George S. Langston, member of the Sixth ward, this
city, departed this life last evening [February 7] after a month’s illness from
Pleuritic troubles. Elder Langston was a native of Augusta, Georgia, where he
joined the Church in August 1888, emigrating to Utah with his family the
following March. He served in the Confederate Army for four years, being one of
Longstreet’s corps under the command of Gen. Lee. He was born December 8, 1847
and was therefore 50 years and 2 months old at the time of his demise. Elder
Langston leaves a wife and son to morn his departure.”
George A Langston in
1902 “left last evening [June 12] for the Southern States, where he will
perform mission for the next few years. A large number if his friends
were at the depot to bid him goodbye and Godspeed.” When the family shows back
in city directors in 1905, they were living on Cottage Court near Sixth South
and Fourth East.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lot Eight Block 64 Plat A
In 1876 Osmyn M Duel, the originally pioneer owner of the one and
a half acres of Lot Eight, having permanently moved to Centerville in Davis
County, sold to another Mormon pioneer William J Lloyd [1823-1903] all of lot 8 for $6,050.
Osmyn Deuel built for his new young wife Sarah
Tonks a nice two-story adobe home on the northern portion of Lot Eight. She
divorced him and married William Thacker were married in 1875.
In 1880 after buying Lot Eight from William
Lloyd, the Thackers split the lot into two parcels selling about
6 [99 feet] rods in the south half of the south half of Lot Eight to Dr.
Dr. Morell L Davis for $300. They sold to Henry Moore for $1800 property
commencing at the northeast corner of Lot Eight south 14 [231 feet] rods and
west 10 [165 feet] rods.
Dr. Morrell L Davis
[1824-1882] was a physician living in the Seventh Ward. He did not own the
property long as he died in 1882. “Sudden Death. At 1:30 o’clock this morning
[August 3] Dr. M.L Davis died suddenly at his residence on Third South Street,
heart trouble being the supposed cause of his demise. A consultation of
physicians will be held today when all the particular will be leaned.” “leading
physicians of the city called and examined him during the Day, and
all pronounced his disease to be rheumatism of the heart.”
Henry Moore in 1881 sold
to Elias Morris [1825-1898] who was administrator of the estate of his
brother William Vaughn Morris, a one rod [16.5 feet] parcel in Lot Eight adjoining
Lot Seven for $150. Elias Morris was a polygamist having two wives.
Henry Moore in 1881 also
sold to Thomas Conway Morris, the son of William Vaughn Morris property
“commencing 1 rod [16.5 feet] from the northwest corner of lot eight. south 8 ½
rods [145 feet 3 inches] and west 3 rods [ 49 feet 3 inches] back to the
beginnings and to Thomas P Lewis a parcel 182 feet from the northeast
former of the lot of 3 rods” for bought
for $400.
Later in 1885
Thomas C Morris sold to his half-brother William C Morris,
[1844-1889] the property purchased from
Henry Moore that measured 8 ½ Rods by 3 rods for $1400.
William C Morris died in
1889. ““A Dispatch from C.F Wilcox to Mr. H. P Richards, of this city, received
last evening [2 Jan 1889], conveyed the intelligence that W.C. Morris was lying
very ill in New York, the result of asphyxiation by gas, and that everything
possible was being done for him. These were the details received up to a late
hour last night. Mr. Morris left here on the 24th of December with the intention of studying art in New York. The
many friends of the gentleman will await with considerable anxiety the receipts
of further particulars, which have been telegraphed for.”
“The following dispatch
was received by Mr. Richards yesterday [4 January 1889] concerning the
condition of Mr. W.C. Morris: “William is still alive. Condition unchanged.
Don’t lose hope. We have not. At 5:46 however, the following reached Mrs.
Morris: “William is still alive but slowly sinking. There is very little hope.”
This will be sad news to the many friends of the young artist, but they will be
loath to give up hope until the end has been reached.”
“Death of W.C. Morris.
The Sad Fate of a Salt Laker in New York. The Herald has kept its readers
posted as to the condition of W.C. Morris, of this city, who was asphyxiated in
New York City on Tuesday evening last. Details, however, have been very meager,
and with the idea of obtaining more definite information, Mr. Wilcox, who was
with Mr. Morris during his illness, was wired to forward full particulars. Up
to a late hour last evening, however, no word had been received from him. The
latest dispatch received in this city early yesterday morning [January 5] , to
the effect that “Billy”, as he was most commonly called, had passed away about
4:30.”
“Although not
unexpected, as it was foreshadowed in dispatches received the day before, the
announcement of his death will be received with the genuine mourning among all
who were acquainted with the deceased and his friends throughout the territory
were numerous. As the news of his death spread throughout the city yesterday,
there was but one sentiment- and that was regret that a bright life should have
been brought to so strange and sudden end, and sympathy for his wife and
children.”
“Of his abilities in his
profession little is need to be said; he has left behind him evidences of his
genius and skill. But his ambition was yet unsatisfied, and it was with the
intention of still further perfecting himself in his art that he went east,
where he proposed to study for several months.”
‘He left full of
confidence that when he returned, he would have overcome such obstacles as he
saw in his path, and thus be enabled to press on to the goal of his desire-the
head of his profession in Utah. The sorrow stricken family and other relatives
have the sympathy of the entire community, and our readers will join with us in
saying that an honorable conscientious, upright man, a true and sympathetic
friend, a loving father, and husband has gone to meet such rewards as are in
store for such. The deceased was 44 years of age and leaves a wife and seven
children. The body of the deceased will probably leave New York today and will
doubtless reach here by Friday.”
“On Saturday last Bro.
W.C Morris died in New York from gas poisoning. He had left the gas
turned on and when discovered he was unconscious. Hon. J. R. Young and other
friends did all they could for him. He lingered for several days but never
gained consciousness. Bro. Morris was well known in Manti having superintended
the artistic painting in the Temple, a work which will long remain as a sample
of his artistic taste. He was in New York to study Portrait painting. We regret
the loss of so valuable a man.”
Street Addresses for Lot
Eight Block 64 Plat A
517 West First South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed a small adobe one story dwelling on this property. It was
owned by a Swedish woman named Julia Bergstrom Sandberg [1838-1903], the first
wife of wife of John Christian Sandberg [1828-1909]. See Chapter Seven “Mrs. Julia Sandberg and
Children”
511 West First South
The 1900 federal census
enumerated the family of 64-year-old John A “Troulson” [Truelson 1835-1903] at
this address. Both he and his 57-year-old wife Johanna “Hannah” emigrated
from Sweden in 1865. He was a coach cleaner for the Railroad. They had resided
in the Fifteenth Ward since at least 1888 living in various residences mainly
in Block 63 and 64.
Johanna Norgren joined the Mormon Church in Sweden
and in1865 immigrated to America . She traveled with the Miner G. Atwood
Company taking three months to cross the plains where they “with met its full
share of trouble and hardship.
Once in Salt Lake she
found employment as a tailor sewing for the large Mormon families. She
married John Andrew Truelson, another Swedish emigrant, in 1867 in the Salt
Lake Endowment House by Heber C Kimball. The 1870 federal census showed the
Truelsons residing in the Eighteenth Ward adjacent to Kimball’s plural wife
Ruth. Heber C Kimball was household 15 and the Truelsons were enumerated
as the 19th Household. Brigham Young was listed as
household 28.
John Truelson was said to be of French descent but a
native of Sweden who joined the Mormon church in Copenhagen Denmark. Upon his
coming to Salt Lake in 1865 he “was successful in taking up milling.
They spent the “greater
part of their lived in Salt Lake City primarily in the Eighteenth and Fifteenth
Ward, “though for a few years they resided in Idaho where it was their great
pleasure to be entertained at their home Sisters Eliza R Snow Emmeline B Wells,
and others who frequently visited that section of the country.”
The Truelsons were the
parents of three sons and two daughters. Their oldest son died in 1887 at the
age of nineteen.
The Truelsons were
probably living with their son Orson Truelson when John A Truelson died in
1903. “In Salt Lake 536 West Third South, John Andrew Truelson age 71.
The indirect cause of death was an accident on the streets in Salt Lake some
months ago when Mr. Truelson was knocked by a team. Death was very sudden.
Notice of funeral later.”
“ The funeral of John A
Truelson will be held at the family residence 536 West Third South Streets
tomorrow Friday [11 September 1903] commencing at 2 o’clock.” Johanna
Truelson remained a widow until her own death in 1919.
509 West First South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed an adobe dwelling at this address of which the north half
was two stories. On the same parcel, a wooden one-story duplex was
located at the southeast corner that did not have an address but facing Fourth
[Fifth] West.
Henry Moore
The family of Henry and
Christine Moore resided here at this address in the 1870s and 80’s. Henry Moore
[1838-1889] was born in the Isle of Man who emigrated in 1866 to the United
States with his wife and infant.
The Moore family arrived
in New York on 5 July 1866 via the ship American Congress and joined the
Daniel Thompson Company for the overland journey to Utah. The overland company
records only list Henry, as head of household, the notation showing he
purchased 2 adult food rations indicates his wife was with him. The
presence of baby Christina on the 1870 census shows that she made and survived
the trip as well.
He is found in the 1870
federal census as living within the Fifteenth Ward of Salt Lake City adjacent
to his father-in-law Thomas Cannell who came to Utah in 1868 with his two
daughters.
In 1877 George W. Boyd
petitioned to have his “job wagon” license transferred to Henry Moore which was
granted. Henry Moore and 22 others of the Fifteenth Ward in 1879 residing or
owning land in the neighborhood of the old adobe yard, petitioned for the
grading of Sixth West [seventh] between Second and Third South
representing that the said street was now impassible by reason of the holes dug
therein by the recent purchasers of the adobe yard lots.”
The 1880 federal census
showed this family as the 110th dwelling visited in the Fifteenth Ward and
household 140. His occupation was given as a “hack driver.”
The 1884 city directory
continued to list the family as living at 509 West First South and that he
worked in a livery stable however by 1886 an advertisement stated that he was
partners with James Thompson at “Thomson’s Real estate Agency Office No. 28
Main St. Opposite Co-Op .
In 1888 “Henry Moore and
others, asked for an extension of the water mains along First South”
which was referred to the Committee on Water Works. The committee “reported
favorably and recommended that the supervisor be instructed to prepare an
estimate of the costs in each case.
Henry Moore was
extensively involved in real estate and purchasing property in Block 64 in the
Fifteenth Ward. He resided at 509 West First Street on the Lot Eight bought
from William J Lloyd .
Henry Moore according to
the 1880 federal census was a “hack driver and lived next to Benjamin P Brown
on First South Street in Block 64. When Moore died of paralysis, probably a stroke,
in 1889 his brother-in-law James H. Moyle was appointed administrator of his
estate filing a bond of $1,870.
Henry Moore died in July
1889 and his probate information gave the dimension of this parcel.
“Commencing at the northeast corner of Lot Eight and running thence south
eight- and one-half rods [140 feet and 3 inches] , thence west six rods [99
feet] north eight- and one-half rod thence east six rods to the
beginning. Appraised a $17,500.
The 1891 city directory reported his widow Christine
Moore had moved to 245 West Fifth North. Later she operated a
lodging house at 110 South Fourth [Fifth].She remained a widow until her death
in 1902. While she died in the home of a son in Granger, her funeral was held
in the Fifteenth Ward Meeting House.
Frank Rose
The 1896 city directory
listed Frank Rose who worked as a mason as living at this address. He may have
been the same man who testified in the murder trial of “W.A. Hobbs, the
ex-confederate soldier whose knife thrust, and the subsequent flow of blood
ended the life of J. A. Thornton , private in Company D sixteenth Infantry” in
1894. The attack was outside Ferrando Saloon although they had been inside
quarreling about the Civil War.
“Frank Rose saw the men
quarreling and the soldier said he would ‘lick’ Hobbs if he was not an old man
with gray hairs. He did strike Hobbs. Witness saw the soldier after he was
stabbed lying on the floor of the saloon. Frank Rose also said when Thornton
threatened to knock the old man down the latter said, “you may knock me down,
but I shall get up a rebel still.” Hobbs was arrested on Third South between
Third [Fourth [Fifth]] West and Fourth [Fifth] West and was acquitted at his
trial.
John Ramsey
The 1899 city director
listed John Ramsey as a teamster living at this address, 1900 federal Census
listed 50-year-old John Ramsey as a day laborer from England. He
emigrated in 1864 and his 39-year-old wife Janey emigrated from England in
1875. They were the parents of nine children, three having died before
1900. They were renting this home. In 1901 John Ramsey had moved from
this address
505 West, 503 West, 501
West First South, and 110 South Fourth [Fifth] West
A large two-story wooden
complex was constructed at the corner of First South and Fourth [Fifth]
West as shown on the 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. On the first floor
was a series of shops and a saloon while the Second Floor was a rooming house.
The map showed three addresses with entrances on First South and a Fourth
[Fifth] one located on Fourth [Fifth] South.
Eckman and Holley Meat Market
Eckman and Holley Meat
Market was located at 505 West First South in 1894, William C Holley of
552 West North Temple was partner with John A Ekman Jr. [1872-1947]
503 West First South
Dean J Rice
[1871-1949] never married but lived with his widowed mother Alice Matilda
Moore Rice [1837-1919] until her death. He was born in Nebraska but by 1880 his
family had moved to Evanston Wyoming where he worked as a “watchman” for the
railroad.
501 West First South
Rio Grande Pharmacy
The
Rio Grande Pharmacy was located at the address of 501 West owned by Harry
Goldtrap Junkin [1868-1927] “Druggist”. He was the proprietor of the Rio Grande Pharmacy from 1895-1898. He was a
native of Iowa and married Euphemia Ethel Mowry in 1896.
“ The Junkin Drug
Company filed articles of incorporation at the office of county clerk Dunbar
yesterday [16 April 1897]. Harry G. Junkin, Dr. T. H. Hazel, H. Piper, A
Dunshee and J R Bowdle, all of this city are incorporators. The capital stock
has been fixed at $2,000 and this is partially represented in the stock of
drugs and property owned by Harry G Junkin who has continued in the drug
business for some time at the corner of First South and Fourth [Fifth]
West.”
“ New Corporations the
Junkin Drug company yesterday filed articles of incorporation with the County
Clerk. The capital stock is $2000, in $5 shares. Officers and directors are
Harry G Junkin, president, J. R. Bowle, vice president, H. Piper secretary and
treasurer; Dr. T.H. Hazel A Dunshee.”
By 1898 Junkin had left
Utah and moved to Hawaii. An article from October 1898 stated
“Harry Junkin Soon to Gather His First Crop in Hawaii. Speaking of the coffee
industry in Honolulu, Charles Bigelow who recently spent some time on the
islands, on his return from the Orient, says there is a Salt Laker, Harry
Junkin, engaged in the business there who will probably make a good thing out
of his first crop, which he will gather very soon, and Mr. Bigelow is of the
opinion that Junkin will soon find his Honolulu interests of sufficient
importance to engross most of his attention. Mr. Junkin is the president of the
Junkin Drug Company.”
The 1900 federal census
enumerated Junkin in Hawaii as a farmer along with his wife and H Piper who had
been one of the incorporators of the Rio Grande Drug Store.
In 1908 Junkin was
appointed Postmaster of Mount View, Hawaii as a sugar cane farmer and merchant.
He was there in 1920 but returned to the states and moved California where he
died in 1927.
101 South Fourth
[Fifth] West
The Nevada Place House operated
by John Sullivan was listed at this address in the 1891 city directory In 1893
it was named the Nevada Hotel at 500 West First South. The
building may have been renumbered as 110 South
by 1896
110 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
In 1894 the Rio Grande Pharmacy was located at
this address owned by Harry G Junkin who moved the drug store to 501 West First
South by 1896.
In 1896 Mrs. Christine Cannell Moore [1841-1902]
was renting furnished rooms at this address. She was the widow of Henry Moore
[1838-1889] and sister-in-law of James Henry Moyle. A newspaper account from
1896 mentions “Mrs. Christine was arrested yesterday afternoon for being drunk
and making a disturbance. She was taken into the station struggling ad
threatening everybody connected with her arrest . He principal lament was that
she was afraid she would have to pay for her ride in the patrol. She said she
didn’t order it and wouldn’t pay for it. She finally let out on her son’s
promising to take care of her. See 509 West First South for Henry Moore
The 1900 Federal Census listed 15 people living
at this address which must have been a rooming house. All but the family of
Charles B and Etta M Patterson were listed as roomers. They may have been
managing the place as they were listed as renting although Charles Patterson
occupation was given as Brakeman for the railroad. They were the parents of two
sons both born in California.
Four married couples were listed as roomers, Mr.
and Mrs. Ben L Short, Mrs. and Mrs. Charles Sprading, Mr. an Mrs. John Arnold
and Mr. and Mrs. James Kimley. A widow Mary Reardon and her son John roomed in
the building as well a nineteen-year-old single delivery man named Calvin
Campbell.
Ben L Short was a 34-year-old miner, Charles
Sprading was a 28-year-old “carriage painter”, John Arnold was a 24-year-old
day laborer, and James Kimley was a 33-year-old Railroad brakeman.
Mrs. Reardon
was a dressmaker.
112 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
Dr. Thomas H. Hazel-
“Physician and Proprietor”
A 35-year-old Physician
Surgeon named Thomas H Hazel [1865-1952] resided at this address according to
the 1900 federal census. He was a native of Pennsylvania and was single until 1909 when he married Elsie K Jensen.
She died in 1929. Dr. Hazel did not
remarry until 1941
at the age of 76. He
was the third husband of Carrie
Elizabeth Reber Close. The marriage took place in Orleans, Louisiana. They were
married eleven days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and to Salt Lake City
where Dr. Hazel had a practice.
After Dr. Hazel retired
and the couple moved close to his wife’s family in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr.
Hazel died in 1952 in Webster Groves, St. Louis, Missouri. His body was removed
back to Utah for burial.
His obituary stated “former
owner of Hazel Drug Company, 802 South Second West, died in Webster Grove
Missouri of a heart attack. He was 87 years old. Buried in Wasatch Lawn
Memorial Park Member of Mt. Moriah Lodge No.2 Free and accepted Masons widow
Mrs. Carrie Klose Hazel.” He and his first
wife were childless.
In 1897 he applied for a
position of “resident physician “ at the county infirmary. The 1898 city directory listed Dr. Hazel as a
physician and manager of the Junkin Drug Company at 501 West First South and
residing at the same place. The 1899 city directory listed as residing at the
same location.
The 1900 city directory
listed Dr. Hazel’s residence as 501 West First South and the Proprietor of the
Hazel Drug Store. The 1903 city
directory still listed the drug store on this corner of First South and Fourth
[Fifth] West, however Dr. Hazel had moved to 204 South Fourth [Fifth]
West by 1905.
The Hazel Drug Store
remained at “Corner of First South and Fourth [Fifth] West” until 1908
when the drug store had moved to 801 South and Second West. He had moved to 748
South Second west.
Newspapers
reported that in 1904 Dr. Hazel attended two girls
who were thrown from a horse. “Emma Henderson 16 years of age and Nettie
Tuscher aged 15 years were thrown from a horse last night [24 July 1904] about
10 o’clock near the Salt Air depot and both were rendered unconscious by the
fall. They were carried into Mrs. Mary Merwin’s residence at 222 South Fourth
[Fifth] Street and it was thought that Emma Henderson was seriously injured. Dr.
Thomas H. Hazel was called and after working with her for some time she
regained consciousness. She was badly bruised on the body and her back was
sprained, but it is not regarded as serious.”
“Emma Henderson has been
living with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Teuscher at 425 West First South street for the
last week employed as a domestic. Together with Mrs. Teuscher’s daughter
Nettie, they got on a horse which was tied in front of their home and rode
along Fourth [Fifth] West street. They met some boys who were celebrating the
Twenty-Fourth [Fifth] of July ad when they passed a negro boy who was in the
crows ran up behind the horse and fired off a gun. The horse bolted throwing
the girls off.
“Nettie Teucher received
some slight bruises and was badly frightened but sustained no serious
injuries.”
114 South and 116 South
Fourth [Fifth] West
The 1889 and 1898
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps showed a one-story wooden duplex that was 9 feet
north of William Fidkin’s house at 122 South. The 1898 map showed the duplex as
39 feet south of the Nevada House Complex and listed its addressees as 114
and 116 South. An advertisement from 1891 listed “Three Rooms
furnished for Rent.”
William C Garner [1868-1928]
lived in this duplex at the turn of the century.
The 1900 federal Census
showed that the family of 32-year-old William C Garner rented 114 South. However,
the 1899 city director listed him across the street at 269 South Fourth West. Garner
was a day laborer supporting a wife and three minor children.
The 1900 Federal census showed Charles E Green,
his wife Annie and 8-year-old daughter
Lillie residing at 116 South. He was
from England, renting the residence and was a 37-year-old gambler. The 1899
city directory listed him as selling cigar at 547 West Second South while
residing at 116 South.
122 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
William Fidkin
[1848-1921] was carpenter, contractor, and builder who did “All
Kinds of Woodwork” lived at this address. He and his wife were Mormon
Coverts who emigrated from England in 1874 to Salt Lake City.
124 South Fourth [Fifth]
South
The 1889 Sanborn Fire
Insurance Map showed directly south of 122 South was a parcel without a
street address but contained a one-story adobe brick dwelling with a
detached small wooden building towards the front with the label “ice cream”.
The 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map gave the parcel the address of 124 South.
The lot was 3 rods [49 feet 6 inches] by 10 rods [165 feet] the same as
the parcel at 122 South. The family of Sheriff Thomas Philip Lewis
occupied this address.
130-132 South Fourth
[Fifth] West
The Westminster
Presbyterian Church
Directly south of 124
South Fourth [Fifth] West was the Westminster Presbyterian Church. The 1889
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map did not give the church an address, but the building
was described as the front of one-story section of the church being brick while
the large space in the rear was made of adobe. There was a wooden spire at the
front entrance of the Church.
132 South Fourth [Fifth]
West-
This address never
appeared on either the 1889 or 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps other than the
address for the Westminster Presbyterian Church. A Dane named Fritz Sebaldus
Ertman [1862-1916] may have been living here
as a janitor.
Ertman was as listed as
living at 132 South Fourth [Fifth] West in the 1896 city directory. He married
Jennie Beck in 1888 In 1891 he was a member of the Scandinavian Democratic
Club. He was the working out of the Hooper Building probably as a janitor as in
1897 he was listed as a janitor in the Hooper Building.
He was mentioned many
times as being involved in musical programs and an article from 1896 stated he
was the president of the “Harmonien Singing Society” who spent “spent an
enjoyable evening at the residence of President F. O. Ertman 132 South
Fourth [Fifth] West. About one hundred .and fifty ladies and gentlemen were
present.”
By 1899 he had moved
away from Block 64 and the 1900 federal census listed him as a
hotelkeeper.
146 South Fourth [Fifth]
West
The residence of
Benjamin P Brown was listed in 25th Precinct 2nd District
