April 18, 2006

• one hundred years ago

  The Great
  
  
  San Francisco
  
  
  Cover-Up

  Have you had enough of the media
  coverage of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906? 
  NPR has been flooded with it today.  When I started working on
  this entry a few days ago, there hadn’t been much mention in mainstream
  media.

  This month’s Smithsonian Magazine
  has an article about the man who saved the U.S. Mint (more on that
  below), and I have a thirty-five-year-old volume of Reader’s Digest
  Condensed Books with their version of The San Francisco Earthquake by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts.

  Those references gave me some targeted search terms with which to
  explore what is available online, and that’s what I did earlier this
  week.  Then the brain fog moved in and I spent a couple of days
  gathering links and images and trying to focus on putting something
  together to post.

  

  One of the first things I learned was that official documents underreported deaths
  from the quake and fire by over six hundred percent.  The official
  death toll released in 1907 by the city Board of Supervisors was
  478.  Librarian Gladys Hansen, now curator of the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco,
  undertook a search of death records in the 1960s, in response to
  requests from genealogists for a list of names of earthquake
  victims.  Her search of official records soon surpassed the
  officially reported number.  Finally, she stopped at 3,000,
  knowing that there were more whose names will never be known.

  In the aftermath of the quake, victims in several parts of the city
  were not counted.  Nobody recorded deaths in Chinatown, nor in the
  area South of Market Street.  James Dalessandro has said, “On Sixth
  Street between Mission and Howard, four hotels with about 1,000 people
  in them pancaked into each other.” 

  One of many possible reasons theorized for the under-reporting is that
  business and political leaders in the City wanted to minimize in the
  mind of the rest of the country the seriousness of earthquake danger in
  order to avoid discouraging outside investment for rebuilding. 
  This was also the most credible reason for the widespread lie at the
  time, that the earthquake had done little damage, and it was the
  subsequent fire that had destroyed the city.

  

  PLAN FOR NEW CHINATOWN

  ---

  
  

  
  The big fire has obliterated Chinatown from San Francisco forever. Mayor
  Schmitz informed Chief of Police Dinan that all of the Chinese now in the
  city would be collected and placed in Fontana’s warehouses, near Fort Mason
  [Van Ness Ave. and Bay St.], and that the new Chinatown would be located at
  Hunter’s point, on the southern extremity of the county on the bay shore. It
  is several miles distant from the old Chinatown. All Chinese who have left
  the city, and who return later, will be concentrated at the new points.
  

  All of the Chinese at present in this city will be gathered together in
  tents in the block bounded by Octavia, Franklin, Chestnut and Fort Mason
  Streets.
  

  ---

  San Francisco Chronicle
  April 25, 1906

  The news story above and other news clips below are from sfmuseum.org.

  

  U.S. Army General Frederick Funston
  deserves as much credit as the earthquake and fire for the destruction
  of San Francisco.  Below is an excerpt from a booklet by a man named Lafler published in the aftermath of the quake.

  During the morning of
  Friday, the 20th of April, sundry citizens whose achievements will hereinafter
  be recounted in detail, put out the fire between Van Ness Avenue and Russian
  Hill. South of Green Street all had been burned. North of Green Street there
  was no fire. Came then the extraordinary dynamiting of the Viavi Building on
  Van Ness Avenue near Green Street, the force of which explosion cast burning
  rafters far and wide over the section free from fire. The conflagration thus
  begun, driven by a gale from the west, swept up over the Hyde Street Hill with
  inconceivable fury, destroying fifty square blocks of buildings where previously
  there had been no fire.

  

  Lafler”s booklet concludes:

  A striking contrast between what was achieved with the aid of the military and
  what loss resulted through military opposition is furnished, respectively, by the
  Globe Mills, at the foot of Montgomery Street, and A.P. Hotaling & Co.,
  Wholesale Liquors, 431 Jackson Street. As is well known, the only structures
  used for business purposes that stood unharmed in the entire district north of
  Market are the Montgomery Block, the Appraisers’ Building, the Jackson Street
  Sub-station of the Postoffice, and the block bounded by Montgomery,
  Jackson, Sansome and Washington Streets, in which is the liquor-
  warehouse of A.P. Hotaling & Co.
  

  The Appraisers’ Building stands, of course, because it was occupied not by
  citizens over whom the military assumed authority, and who would have been
  driven forth that the building, might burn, but by officials of the United States
  Government, over whom no authority was assumed, and whom, on the
  contrary, the military did everything in its power to aid. As a consequence, the
  windows were manned by men with buckets; the roof was kept clear of blazing
  brands, and the building was saved without difficulty, though, on Wednesday,
  when all the fronting buildings on the south side of Washington Street burned to
  the ground the wind blew the flames directly toward the structure. The
  Postoffice Sub-station was saved in similar manner. It is the only
  building standing in its block, the flames having destroyed both the building
  touching it at the right and that at the left. The military, of course, made no
  effort to drive out government officials, and with water, brought in buckets
  from the pool that had formed in the excavation for the new custom house one
  block distant, the building was saved. The credit for the saving of the
  Montgomery Building, on three sides of which were streets, and on the fourth a
  blank wall, seems to belong to Captain Cook, now
  Chief Cook, a fireman.
  

  But as for the entire block in which is the warehouse of A. P. Hotaling & Co.,
  it seems to have been saved principally by the efforts of this firm.
  

  The military, contrary to its nature in other parts of the city, was here
  susceptible to reason, and granted permission to the manager of the firm to
  remain with his men. It even permitted him to remove from the warehouse on
  Thursday over one thousand barrels of whisky which were placed under guard
  in the excavation to the east of the Appraisers’ Building. The employees of this
  firm were further permitted to bring from the pool in this excavation four or
  five 60-gallon puncheons of water and distribute them along the front of
  the block. They were also permitted to employ a hundred men who stood guard
  upon the roof. and At other exposed places when the fire crept up from the
  north on Friday afternoon, and who then successfully fought it back. The value
  to the firm of A. P. Hotaling & Co. of the favors they received at the hands of
  the military may be faintly suggested by the fact that the establishments of other
  liquor dealers in the same block were looted of
  their valuable contents as were restaurants and saloons in the Montgomery
  Block not destroyed by fire, while the firm of A. P. Hotaling & Co. lost
  nothing.
  

  In striking contrast with the case of A. P. Hotaling & Co., in which the
  military exercised the most unusual good sense and wisdom is that of the Globe
  Mills, at the foot of Montgomery Street. Mr. W. E. Keller, President of the
  Company, after relating his unsuccessful efforts to obtain assistance for the
  protection of his property from General Funston, the mayor, or the fire
  department, stated as follows:
  

  “We believed our building to be entirely fireproof. It is protected on the west
  and south by Telegraph Hill. The roof was metal, the walls of brick, and the
  window casings were of metal also. The doors were of iron, very heavy. Within
  the building were twelve fire extinguishers, and a salt water tank, of unlimited
  capacity, connects with the bay. The building stands apart, and virtually the
  only inflammable material was the 10,000 barrels of flour and 4,500 tons of
  wheat which it contained. Wheat, though it makes a very hot and fierce fire, is
  difficult to ignite, as fire started on its surface is easily smothered, and flour is
  also not easily ignited. For the reason that we believed the building could not
  burn, we carried no insurance. On Friday afternoon, as the flames approached,
  we got together ten of our men, and were confident of success in saving the
  mill. At four o’clock in the afternoon, soldiers appeared and ordered us out,
  threatening to shoot us if we did not go. Arguments and explanations were of
  no avail. We were ordered to go or be shot. We left the building, and late at
  night, after being exposed for many hours to the heat of burning lumber yards
  to the north and east, windows in the east front at length broke, and bins of
  wheat thus directly exposed to the heat, were ignited. There is of course no
  doubt whatever that one man could have saved the structure had he been
  permitted to remain. Our loss was $220,000.00.”

  ---

  Charles K field wrote this verse which has become an immortal part of San Francisco folklore:
  If, as some say, God spanked the town
  For being over frisky,
  Why did He burn the Churches down
  And save Hotaling’s Whisky?

  

  

  Some of those charged with protecting citizens’ property from looters, members of the U.S.Army and California National Guard, became looters themselves.

  

  HARVEST TIME FOR THE TRAMPS

  ---

  
  

  
  To the hobos and tramps that infest San Francisco in large numbers
  throughout the year the earthquake came as a forerunner of a time of plenty.
  Amid the general destitution which the country at large is doing its utmost
  to relieve the tramps are passing themselves off as sufferers of the
  disaster, and in consequence, they are living much better than they usually
  fare. They do not even have to beg for food; it is given them cheerfully,
  for rather than let one needy person suffer, the committee in charge of the
  relief work is willing to take chances of feeding a hundred of the unworthy.
  

  About the water front where men are being impressed to unload trucks they
  have made themselves scarce, but in the unburned district west of Van Ness
  they have established rendevous in vacant houses and empty lots. Some of
  them have managed to secure blankets, which they have used in erecting tents
  and they spend their time laying up provisions against the time when the
  stores will begin to charge for them. One of the more notorious members of
  the fraternity, known on the water front as “Shifty Bill,” expressed himself
  to the effect that it was better than spending the winter in the County
  Jail.
  

  An influx of tramps from all parts of the United States may be expected, and
  it is partly to check this onrush that the lines are being drawn so tightly
  in regard to entrance to the city.
  

  ---

  San Francisco Chronicle
  April 26, 1906
  

  ---

  
  

  The area around the U.S. Mint turned
  into a shanty town and some of the first businesses to reopen in San
  Francisco after the fire were operating in tents clustered around the
  Mint building.  Frank Leach, night supervisor at the Mint, had
  mobilized his crew and saved the building from the fire. 
  Afterwards, he arranged for two pipelines to be run from the mint’s
  artesian well for the use of survivors.  For a while it was the
  only water source within the burned-out area and was the reason that
  the shanty town formed there.

  

  Class and race prejudice were two issues that
  surfaced in this story from the San Francisco “Call.” Many of the wealthy considered
  refugee camps to be “hotbeds of socialism,” and wanted them removed as quickly as
  possible from their neighborhoods. This story is also of interest because it contains one of
  the few references in the earthquake literature to African American victims of the
  disaster.

  ---

  JEWELED WOMAN LEADS REFUGEES.

  Adorned with Diamonds, She Protests Removal from Lafayette Square.
  
  

  The refugees of Lafayette Square held a mass meeting last night to protest against the plan
  of the relief committee to remove them to the ground on Thirteenth and Fourteenth avenues,
  where it is proposed to build houses for them. The result of the meeting was the
  appointment of a committee to wait on the Park Commission and request the further use of
  the square.
  
  

  
  The meeting was led by Mrs. J.W. Scott, one of the refugees of the camps who lives in
  Tent 1, Section G. Mrs. Scott was well—almost handsomely attired. In her ears
  sparkled brilliant diamonds, at her throat was a valuable diamond sunburst, and rich gems
  sparkled on her white hands. Mrs. Scott in opening the meeting, spoke in part as follows:
  

  The Park Commissioners voted that no cottages should be built in Lafayette square on the
  plea that it is windy and suggesting the removal of the campers to Thirteenth and
  Fourteenth avenues, near the Presidio. Such an act will be an eternal disgrace as well as a
  hellish punishment for the deserving ones who have become reconciled to the conditions as
  they were existing. There is but one reason why the people of Lafayette square should be
  singled out for removal, and that is the objection of certain people of wealth to their
  presence.
  
  

  
  Which ought to be the first consideration, the whims of the rich or the absolute
  requirements of the unfortunate? By right the poor refugees have just as much claim on the
  property of the city as the people in mansions. The money that is being used was
  subscribed by outsiders for the benefit of the deserving who were burned out and could not
  pay heavy rents. My advice to you all is to stick together until the insult and wrong to us
  have been rectified. Imagine being sent to Fourteenth avenue. One line of cars only going
  near there and no transferring. This means $1.20 per week for the carfare for one. Who in
  the present dilemma can pay it? How can men and women get to work in any reasonable
  time?
  
  

  
  Rather than submit to be treated as deported beings by the self-constituted
  dispensers of other peoples money it will be advisable to take all chances of cold and
  sickness by remaining in tents where we are.
  

  Speeches were also made by L.H. Cooper, A.W. Belcher and J.W. Scott.
  
  

  
  A committee composed of Mrs. J.W. Scott, J.W. Scott and L.H. Cooper was appointed to
  go before the Park Commission today and protest against their removal.
  
  

  
  During the meeting some one in the crowd suggested that a colored man, named Rufus
  Jones, a camp dweller at Lafayette Square, be added to the committee. At this suggestion
  Mrs. Scott rebelled and called out “no.” Some one called out, “Race prejudice should not to
  be considered.” Mrs. Scott, however, carried her way, and the committee was not
  increased.
  

  ---

  San Francisco Call
  September 27, 1906
  

  ---

  

  

  QUAKE VICTIMS MAKE
  THREATS

  ---

  
  Refugees Call Phelan, Pollack and Dr. Devine Traitors,
  
  and Talk of Tar and Feathers

  ---

  
  SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., Friday.—James D. Phelan, chairman of the Relief
  Committee; Allan Pollock, member of the same committee, and Dr.
  Edward T. Devine, at the head of the Red Cross Association and President
  Roosevelt’s special representative in the local relief work, are attacked as
  traitors in a printed circular, copies of which are scattered in the streets
  and refugee camps. The resignation of Dr. Devine is demanded, and it is
  intimated that unless Phelan and Pollack sever their connection with the
  Finance Committee they will be tarred and feathered. The documents are
  signed “The Committee of the Whole,” an organization of refugees, of
  which Joseph M. Clark, who lives in tent No. 703, Jefferson square, is
  secretary. He denies all knowledge of the circular, but states that its tone is
  to mild to suit him.
  

  Phelan says Clark came to him on Friday and attempted to sell out the
  Committee of the Whole, and later tried to blackmail Phelan. His clerk,
  who saw Clark at Relief Headquarters, asserts that the man came there
  twice before he was permitted to enter Phelan’s office.
  

  “The circular is true,” Clark said when seen. “These men should be forced
  to resign. But the statements contained in it are not strong enough for us.
  In a few days we shall issue an eight page pamphlet that will be such a
  broadside that even Roosevelt, at Oyster Bay, will sit up and take notice of
  it.
  

  “I admit going to see Phelan, but did not go there to sell information
  concerning the meetings of the Committee of the Whole. On the contrary, I
  went there for transportation East for my wife.”
  

  Associated with Clark in the committee is Alva Udell, an attorney. He has
  petitioned President Roosevelt, Secretary of War Taft and others high in
  authority to remove the ration funds from the custody of the Finance
  Committee and place them in the hands of the refugees. These petitions,
  some of which contained violent attacks on the Finance Committee, were
  referred to the Finance Committee by the President and the Secretary of
  War.
  

  Two cars containing shoes and wearing apparel for sufferers in this city
  have been lost en route from Chicago according to Colonel Peppy, chief of
  the Relief Board. Colonel Peppy stated yesterday that the consignment was
  started from Chicago over a month ago and that no record of it was
  obtainable from the railroad company which had been unable to locate it.

  New York Evening Telegram
  July 20, 1906
  

  

  I had more newsclips:  a story about some twitchy soldiers who shot a horse, and The Wisdom of the Dogs, that I intended to copy here, but I couldn’t make those links work for me today.

  I’ve been fighting the fog enough for today.  I’m outta here,
  gonna go find something easy to eat and then go to bed with some
  unchallenging reading material.
  

  • 8:27 pm
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