Video: 2022-08-17 - Hellacious California - Tales of Rascality, Revelry, Dissipation, and Depravity with Gary Noy (30 minutes)

Full Transcript of the Video:

I'd like to introduce Gary Noy. He's been here a couple times, I think. >> Yeah, sir. >> A prolific writer. How many books have you pinned thus far? >> Six. >> Six? >> No. >> Maybe he's been here six times. >> [LAUGH] >> Retired professor at Sierra College. >> How are we on that? >> Quite. >> Quite, okay. >> I still teach part-time. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Well, thank you. Can you hear me okay? >> Yeah. >> Well, I am delighted to be here for a couple of reasons. One is I've given in the last ten years, I don't know, 300 or something presentations all over the place. This is only the second time in the last two and a half years that I've given a presentation before actual people. >> [LAUGH] >> So I'm delighted with that. And the other reason I'm happy to be here is I think some of you know this, but I am from Braskalik, I started in my hometown. And so I'm always delighted to come back up here to my old stomping grounds. And it's always great to come here, this particular location, because my dad who worked in the mines, worked in the empire and the north star and the central and all of that, after he left the mines, he became a teacher. And his first teaching job was in the old Nevada City High School, which was drug down here, and so used to be down the street. And so it's always great to come back up here. Before I go any further, I just want to take a moment to point out a real influence on tonight's presentation. And that's my friend, Dr. David Beasley, who passed away not too long ago. David and I were colleagues at Sierra College, and his work on the environmental history of Sierra was a tremendous influence on what I do and what I write about. And I was also delighted that when David retired, he donated all of his research materials to the Sierra College Archives, which I used to run. And it's provided a great resource for myself and for other scholars over the years. And David will be a co-biumist, he was a fabulous scholar, and even more importantly, he was a really good guy. And so you'll see his influence, his fingerprints will be in this presentation tonight. Well, let's begin. And what I'm going to be talking about is some of the material from this book, which is available to you back there, "Hilacious California. " And let me tell you a little bit about how this book came about. I've written a number of other books. Let me bring them up here. A number of other books on Sierra Nevada and gold rush and foothills history. And this is what Mary Ann was asking about. I did have a new book coming out in November. And tonight, new folks get to be the first people to actually see the cover, because I just got it. It's coming out in November at University of Nebraska Press. It's a book on Yosemite. It's an anthology on 19th century Yosemite, which goes into stuff that other books don't go into, like the bloodshed in Yosemite Valley, there's a massive war that took place there. And I think most interestingly, the fact that there were a whole lot of people who went to Yosemite and hated it. They were overwhelmed by the beauty, but thought everything was overpriced, and the drinks were wired down, and the food is bad, and the smell bad, and they hated it, and they weren't shy about writing it. You don't see that in other books. And so that's coming out. It's called "Nature's Mountain Mansion," which is what John Muir called Yosemite Valley. So that's coming out. So I've written a number of books on the 19th century in California, and it was such a dynamic time period. Huge changes took place. Much of what we see as characteristics, venerated traits of California, really have their origins in the 19th century, because it was so intense and so rapid. Six months was an eternity in 19th century California. Everything turned over. Just think about this. In about a 20-year period, in a generation, California went from a distant colony of Spain to a largely ignored province of Mexico, to a short-lived independent republic, a verified republic, to a military governorship, to what's called a self-governing dominion, which meant there's no law, to statehood, all within about a 20-year period, with different legal systems, different cultural values, and then you layer on top of that the Golden Rush, which was the largest single migration of people to a single spot for a single purpose in 600 years since the Crusades. Huge changes. All of that was so intense and brought about this venerated change. Something unique happened in California. Because everything changed so rapidly, no traditions were established in 19th century California. Nothing stayed around long enough to become a tradition. And there's a wonderful historian named James Gregory, who wrote an essay, a wonderful essay called "The Shaping of California History. " And he writes about this, and he says there were no traditions established except one, and that one tradition was the tradition of change. Change became a California trait. And so everything we see in California today that's unique and groundbreaking and on the edge of societal change has its origins in 19th century California. So it's very unique. What that brings me to the book, "Galatius California. " What brought this about? Well, in doing the research for these other books, I discovered something quite interesting, I think. That as I looked at the historical events and the individuals, some very dark elements, very dark history in California, some more quirky and bizarre, I found that there was a common denominator. And the common denominator was in virtually every case, probably 99% of the time, whenever an event took place or an individual did something that was noteworthy, they were engaged in a vice. They were drinking or fighting or smoking or eating too much or in criminal activity. And I thought to myself, if it's that critical, why not focus on the vices? So that's what the book is about. It's about the vices in 19th century California, drinking and tobacco and fighting and centric entertainments and con artists and all of that kind of thing. It's called "Galatius California," the title, because "Galatius" has two meanings. It depends on how the word is used. Most of the time when people say, "Well, something is "Galatius," they mean something terrible. But if it's used in a different way, it can also mean something remarkable and astonishing. And that word, that one word encapsulates what I think 19th century California was about. It was simultaneously often awful and astonishing. There were things that happened that were just very unique and groundbreaking, but there were also things that were incredibly dark and deeply troubling. And what I'd like to do for you tonight is just to tell you a few stories about some of these halacious events and people and tie them to some of the vices. I'm not going to talk about the really dark stuff because it's too depressing to talk about them. I'm going to talk about some of the quirky kind of things that come to reflect this halacious California experience. And we're going to start with this story. The story of the woman known as the Confidence Queen. And confidence is a term for a con artist. Well, 19th century California is always con artists. There's con artists everywhere, always. The 19th century ones were incredibly brazen, and they just were so open about it and proud and publicly making the public aware of their actions. And one of the best known kind of consonants, one of the consonant con artists of the 19th century, was this one, Bertha Heyman, who came to be known as the Confidence Queen. Let me give you a little story of her background. Bertha Heyman was born into a family of con artists. Her father spent many years in prison for forgery and counterfeiting, and Bertha learned at his feet. And she had a criminal record that was longer than both arms. And she was constantly being arrested for forgery or fraud or counterfeiting. She was arrested dozens of times. From all accounts, she was incredibly charming and flirtatious, particularly with older wealthy men, which made it very successful for her con artistry. Just to give you an example of how frequently she got arrested, there was a story at Bertha that she got arrested for fraud and she went on trial. And the jury reached the verdict, and she stood up to face the jury, and the jury found her not guilty. But before she sat down, the authorities arrested her again for fraud, found her guilty, and she ended up going to prison. She gave a newspaper interview to a New York prominent New York newspaper in which she detailed how she conned, how she fleeced these old wealthy guys, and how proud she was of it, and how she considered it engaged. She called it an intellectual pursuit. She was very proud of it. Now, I've told you this for a reason. Everything I just told you about Bertha Hayman happened before she came to California and pulled off her most audacious con. She was so prominent that by 1886, this man, Thomas Burns, who is the police chief of New York City, wrote a book called Professional Criminals of America, listing the worst of the worst, and prominently featured was Bertha, with her photograph and a description. This book, by the way, is considered the first use of mugshots in America. It was used earlier in Europe, and this is the first time in America. So in 1886, Bertha Hayman was a very well-known criminal commodity. She was in prison in 1886, and she got out soon afterwards, and she decided to try to plow some new fields. So she left the East Coast. She was a New York based, and she came to San Francisco. In 1888, she arrived in San Francisco with her adult son named Willie, and she started to tell a story that got spread throughout San Francisco. Con artists call it the tale, and the tale she told was, and this is all, of course, none of this is true, she was a rich widow, and her husband had bequeathed her hundreds of thousands of dollars, which in today's money would be tens of millions of dollars. So she said she was very wealthy, and she wanted to come and start her life over, so she came to San Francisco, and she let it be known, and she passed her son off, Willie, passed it as her servant. And she spread this tale throughout San Francisco that she was looking for a husband to help her manage her wealth. Her story, her tale was that she was a mere woman, and she had no head for figures, and she needed a man to control all of her wealth. Well, this got a lot of interest, and there were dozens of men who expressed interest in becoming Bertha's husband and managing her vast wealth. Well, we know of at least 20 men who got roped into this scheme. There's probably more, because one of the stocks of the con artist trade is they count on the fact that the people who get taken don't report it, because they're so embarrassed. So we know at least 20 who were involved, and this was the scheme. Bertha said, "Well, there's so much interest. I'm going to have to interview the men to find out which one is suited to be my husband. " And just so I know, she said, just so I know that you are a man of means, and that you have your own resources and you're skilled in finances. Here's what I would like you to do. I would like you to put up some money upfront, some serious earnest money. And it could be thousands to tens of thousands, which would be hundreds of thousands of dollars today. And if I don't choose your finer union, I don't choose you as a husband, I will match it from my vast wealth, and I will give it to charity, which she had, of course, no intention of doing. So at least 20 men got roped into this, and Willie and Bertha had hundreds of thousands of dollars, which would be millions and millions of dollars in today's money. Meanwhile, while this scheme's going on, Bertha's living it up. She's staying in the most expensive hotel, she's buying expensive jewelry, most expensive dresses, and she's telling the shopkeepers and hotel keepers, "Just put it on my tab, and when my finances get all straight down, I'll pay you off. " Of course, she had no intention of doing it. Well, this scheme went on for a few weeks, until finally one day, Willie and Bertha were gone. They just disappeared. And a few of the men, many were embarrassed and didn't report it, but a few of the men reported Bertha and Willie to the authorities, and they started a nationwide hunt for them. They were finally found in Texas, thanks to this photograph. Thanks to this photograph. And they were brought back to San Francisco to have a trial for fraud. It was a sensational trial. They were the celebrity prisoners of the early 1890s. The trial had huge crowds that came. So crowded, in fact, that this newspaper article of the time period mentions that the judge had to fight his way through the crowd to get to the bench. The trial took place, the jury reached its verdict, and they announced the verdict. Willie, the son, was found guilty. But Bertha, mastermind of the whole thing, was found not guilty. They interviewed the jurors, all male, afterwards, and they said, "How come you found her not guilty?" And to a man, they said, "She could not have possibly done it. She's such a sweet, delightful, charming young woman. She conned the jurors. " So what happens to Bertha? Well, Bertha claims that now she's so famous, she's notorious, that she can't do con artistry anymore, and she's moved away from that, although a lot of people think she still did it. And she uses her celebrity notoriety by going on the stage, and she fancies herself an actress, but from all accounts, she was just awful. But she was a celebrity, and she had notoriety. So audiences flocked to see her, and she made a small fortune from this. She was one of those people we used to have in our own lives, a no-talent celebrity who was famous for being famous. That was Bertha Hayman. She used her wealth, ultimately, to purchase a whole string of saloons throughout the American West. That's a hellacious story. That's awful and astonishing at the same time. And it also highlights the fact that the legal system was just kind of crazy in California, particularly in the beginning, which leads me to a story. I put this in especially for you all tonight, because this is a figure who was rather prominent in Nevada County. At the turn of the gold rush, when statehood started, there was very little ball. It was a self-governing dominion, which meant that basically you made up your own rules. Almost all of the law was local law or claim law. We'll talk about this a little bit more in a minute. But the legal system was virtually nonexistent for about 18 months at the beginning of the gold rush. And this man, Alicia Crosby, who was a lawyer and a prominent politician at the time, said of California in 1849, he said, "In fact, there was very little law of any kind, very few courts, and almost no legal proceedings. " People made it up as they went along. But this caused a problem for lawyers in California, and there were a number of them, because they had come for the gold rush. They had come to be minors, but they failed, as did most people during the gold rush. And when they turned to their former profession, there was nothing for them to do, because there was no legal system to speak of, which leads to my most interesting couple of events. One takes place in San Francisco in 1850, and there, San Francisco starts to grow. There is a freight company owner by the name of John McLintock. He has a wagon and a mule, and he delivers stuff. And he's doing pretty well. In the hyperinflated economy of gold rush San Francisco, he decides to expand. So he's going to get a second wagon and a second mule, and deliver more stuff. He writes to his mother back in New York, John McLintock, and he writes this about who he hires. He said, "We have today hired a lawyer to drive a mule team. That is all we use that lawyers are out here. We pay him $175 a month, which in today's money would be about $6,000 a month, so pretty significant pay. " He says, "So we hired this lawyer to drive the mule team. When you meet Judge White," he writes to his mother, "When you meet Judge White, tell him this. " And McLintock's mother replies in a letter, and she says, "I saw Judge White today, and I told him what you said. And he told me to say to you that he, as a lawyer, must say you could not have done better in the selection of a mule driver. For the whole business of a lawyer is to know how to manage mules and asses and make them pay. " So it was a very quirky legal system in the beginning. And this is where Francis J. Dunn comes in. He is mentioned in virtually every county history in the foothills in the Sierra from the 1850s and '60s period, the whole Cold Rush era. But he spent a lot of time, did a lot of work in Nevada County. And Francis J. Dunn became renowned for the fact that he was very theatrical and very dramatic, pretty eccentric, and he was famous, infamous, for in court, when the other lawyer would make an argument, Francis J. Dunn would always make a response. He'd always say something, even if it was irrelevant. So in one famous court case, this may have taken place in Nevada County. It's listed in one of the Nevada County histories. An opposing lawyer gave an argument in court, and Francis J. Dunn, of course, popped up to be given a response. And he was very dramatic and theatrical. And he said this, he replied to the argument, and I'll try to do this as theatrically as Francis J. Dunn. He said, "The remarks of counsels have done. The remarks of counsel remind me of a quotation from a classical poet. " I cannot recall the name of the poet, and I've forgotten the quotation. But if I could recall it, the court would see it as a problem. And I'd like to let you sound now. This was the nature of the legal system, and it even became expressed, even more minimalist, in the fact that most law during the Gold Rush era was what was called claim law, in which a mining claim or a mining camp would make their own rules and regulations. It was very, very common during the-- let me go through the images here, because I forgot to do this. Most of the lawyers in the time period practiced in courthouses like this. This is a beautiful Mariposa County Courthouse, which still looks like this, and it's still used. This is what it looks like today in the Mariposa County Courthouse. It's like going back in time. And this is an image of representing Francis J. Dunn, not recalling the name of a classical poet. Well, back to claim law. It was very common during the Gold Rush era that when people first came out here, they oftentimes formed what were called joint stock companies or mutual associations. This happened back in quite a bit, in which communities would gather together. The men of a community would decide to come to California all together, and they would form a mining camp, and the community would invest in the company by stock in order to buy equipment and to pay the passage, and the workers, the miners, once they got to a mining camp, would establish their community, their mining community, and they'd share and share alike, and the people with the most stock would get the revenue from the gold that was found. It was very common. Well, one of the most documented of these joint stock companies was on the middle fork of the American River. The middle fork of the American River there was a miner by the name of Tom Buckner, and Tom Buckner, let's see what we got here. We'll get back to him in a second. Tom Buckner had a joint stock company, and they formed a company on the middle fork up at two locations. One was called Buckner's Bar, and it was called Burger's Bar, and it was a rich part of the American River. If you've ever been in that part of the world, the confluence is where you go over the bridge over the river and you rough the middle fork. It's pretty wild today, and there's not many people there. Well, at the time of Buckner's Bar functioning, there were 10,000 miners there. It was a huge community, and Buckner wanted to connect. Buckner's Bar and Burger's Bar were canal, so that it would make it easier to travel and to do the mining. It would end up looking something like this. Well, these joint stock companies, because they were using the community's money, usually had rules, and the rules were, if you lived in this community and you're part of the company, you couldn't drink, you couldn't smoke, you couldn't fight, you couldn't gamble, because all of that would keep you from doing your job. And if you violated these conditions,