Volume 043-2 - April 1989 (8 pages)

William C. Ralston and the Case of the Missing Oak Planks In the early 1870’s, William C. Ralston, president of the Bank of California and “financial Caesar” of San Francisco, undertook construction of the Palace Hotel, which, when completed in October of 1875, was said to be the largest hotel in the United States at the time. Ralston decided that the hostelry floors should be made of oak planking, and unbeknownst to William Sharon, his Virginia City representative and future United States Senator of the state of Nevada, he opted to buy a ranch “‘for a large sum of money” near Grass Valley that “abounded in the finest specimens of oak he had ever seen.” According to George Lyman’s Ralston’s Ring, “Under these conditions there was nothing for Sharon to do but assent.” The 600-acre ranch, located five and a half miles southeast from Grass Valley and seven miles from Colfax, contained “hundreds of oak trees,” and was the property of David M. Barker. pomBorn in New Hampshire in 1825, Barker had moved to Vermont in 1835, where “he was engaged in stockraising” until 1853. He then came to California by the Isthmus route and pursued his farming occupation on what would become known as the Barker Ranch, and where the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad (NCNGRR) would later build its Buena Vista Station. (The railroad stop was located at the present junction of State Highway 174, You Bet Road, and Narrow Gauge Drive.) Barker had leased the property as early as May of 1858 to local lumber baron Reuben Leech, who operated a steam sawmill there. (By the 1870’s, Leech had his own lumber yard on Grass Valley’s South Auburn Street, the future Mohawk Lumber Company, in partnership with Edward and John Coleman, of the Idaho Mine and NCNGRR fame.) On January 3, 1875, the Grass Valley Union reported that George Geisendorffer of New England Mills (now, Weimar, in Placer County), had been “engaged to saw a large body of timber land” to be used for the Palace Hotel. A saw mill “is to be erected on the land and all the black oak timber on it will be sawed into certain lengths and shipped in the rough” to San Francisco. The newspaper stated that upon delivery, the oak “will be made into smaller blocks and then will be treated to boiling oil baths and in other ways, and will be finally /™\used to pave the passages and offices” of the hotel. Furthermore, the blocks were to be laid down “in an artistic style and will make a most beautiful and durable floor.” The editor added, by Michel Janicot ‘When our narrow gauge railroad gets to running Nevada County can furnish the oak to pave all the palatial floors of San Francisco and will receive the orders for the wood.” For its part, the Nevada City Daily Transcript of January 5, 1875, mentioned that “the massive structure known as the Palace Hotel.. is an immense pile of bricks and mortar, yet would be a small affair when placed alongside the Vatican.” On January 6, the Union stated that its rival newspaper from Nevada City had “erected the Palace Hotel out of peculiar material, and when Ralston reads that paper's article he will be much mortified.’ The Transcript noted that the ranch had been sold for $15,000, the price “being governed by the amount of oak timber upon the ranch.” Charles Fayette McGlashan, famed antiChinese editor of the Truckee Republican and author of the History of the Donner Party, rode the narrow gauge railroad in May of 1878, and his observations of that trip appeared in the Sacramento Bee that same month. McGlashan mentioned “the price of the ranch was $12,000.” Our research at the Nevada County Recorder’s Office, however, revealed that Barker received two payments of $8,000 “in gold coin” each, and an additional one of $500, for a total of $16,500. The three transactions —“filed at the request of David M. Barker’—were recorded on December 11 and 18, 1875, almost four months after Ralston’s accidental drowning of August 27. William Sharon, Thomas Brown, A.J. Ralston, and J.D. Fry, executors of Ralston’s estate, made the first two $8,000 payments; while Lizzie Fry Ralston, “widow and sole divisee under the will and testament” of her late husband, paid the remaining $500 balance. On February 17, 1875, the Union reported that Geisendorffer’s sawmill, “which will saw the oak timber for the Palace Hotel, will soon start up. The mill will have to run night and day and Sundays also to complete the contract,” as the lumber ‘“‘must be sawed by May Ist,” the newspaper stated. No further information on that topic appeared in the Union until April 4, when that newspaper announced that the Barker Ranch was “‘the scene of busy lumbering operations.” The ranch contained ‘‘a large number of fine black oak trees,” where Geisendorffer was “engaged in sawing up this black oak into lumber of various dimensions. A force of Chinese wood choppers are felling the trees and sawing off the butt ends. . .and splitting the remainder for cord wood.” The lumber, when sawed, would be hauled directly to Colfax and from: thence shipped by rail to San Francisco, where “it is again sawed into small blocks and otherwise prepared for flooring.” Moreover, the Union stated that “Besides the lumber shipped, the sound roots and knots of the oak are also sent below to be worked up for the embellishment” of the Palace Hotel. “The sound black oak of these foothills,’ the Union remarked, ‘“‘makes an excellent finishing wood and the proprietors of the hotel being made aware of its value are going to use a large amount of it in the Palace, and at no point in the State could so fine a body of black oak be produced so convenient to an easy shipping point as that which is found at the Barker Ranch.” In what is known as an ironic twist of fate, those hundreds of black oak trees, milled into some 500,000 feet of timber, never graced the floors of “the world’s grandest hotel.” Both Lyman (whom we previously mentioned earlier) and Oscar Lewis, author of Bonanza Inn, substantially agree that ‘“‘Not until after the deal was made did Ralston discover that they were not the variety of oaks from which flooring could be made.” Lyman states that ““‘When Ralston failed to use a single plank from those felled trees, Sharon demurred, but said nothing.” The question now is, whatever happened to those oak planks? We recently wrote to Mr. Donald Timbie, General Manager and VicePresident of the Sheraton-Palace Hotel at San Francisco, who stated that “we do not know what happened to the wood.” Likewise, the San Francisco Chronicle told us that there are no newspaper records in its morgue prior to April, 1906, when the famed earthquake and subsequent fire of April 18-19, destroyed both the Palace Hotel and the Chronicle buildings. On the whereabouts of that oak wood, we surmise that the oak planks, which were not used for flooring of the Palace Hotel, might have been utilized as decorative elements in the hotel as the Union of April 4, 1875, postulated; or were sold to the highest bidder for whatever building purposes; or went up in smoke as firewood. Neither the Union nor the Transcript reported any further information on those missing oak planks for the years 1875 and 1876, and we therefore ask our readers to help us solve that puzzle. For references, see page 16, top.

William C. Ralston and the Case of the Missing Oak Planks In the early 1870’s, William C. Ralston, president of the Bank of California and “financial Caesar” of San Francisco, undertook construction of the Palace Hotel, which, when completed in October of 1875, was said to be the largest hotel in the United States at the time. Ralston decided that the hostelry floors should be made of oak planking, and unbeknownst to William Sharon, his Virginia City representative and future United States Senator of the state of Nevada, he opted to buy a ranch “‘for a large sum of money” near Grass Valley that “abounded in the finest specimens of oak he had ever seen.” According to George Lyman’s Ralston’s Ring, “Under these conditions there was nothing for Sharon to do but assent.” The 600-acre ranch, located five and a half miles southeast from Grass Valley and seven miles from Colfax, contained “hundreds of oak trees,” and was the property of David M. Barker. pomBorn in New Hampshire in 1825, Barker had moved to Vermont in 1835, where “he was engaged in stockraising” until 1853. He then came to California by the Isthmus route and pursued his farming occupation on what would become known as the Barker Ranch, and where the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad (NCNGRR) would later build its Buena Vista Station. (The railroad stop was located at the present junction of State Highway 174, You Bet Road, and Narrow Gauge Drive.) Barker had leased the property as early as May of 1858 to local lumber baron Reuben Leech, who operated a steam sawmill there. (By the 1870’s, Leech had his own lumber yard on Grass Valley’s South Auburn Street, the future Mohawk Lumber Company, in partnership with Edward and John Coleman, of the Idaho Mine and NCNGRR fame.) On January 3, 1875, the Grass Valley Union reported that George Geisendorffer of New England Mills (now, Weimar, in Placer County), had been “engaged to saw a large body of timber land” to be used for the Palace Hotel. A saw mill “is to be erected on the land and all the black oak timber on it will be sawed into certain lengths and shipped in the rough” to San Francisco. The newspaper stated that upon delivery, the oak “will be made into smaller blocks and then will be treated to boiling oil baths and in other ways, and will be finally /™\used to pave the passages and offices” of the hotel. Furthermore, the blocks were to be laid down “in an artistic style and will make a most beautiful and durable floor.” The editor added, by Michel Janicot ‘When our narrow gauge railroad gets to running Nevada County can furnish the oak to pave all the palatial floors of San Francisco and will receive the orders for the wood.” For its part, the Nevada City Daily Transcript of January 5, 1875, mentioned that “the massive structure known as the Palace Hotel... is an immense pile of bricks and mortar, yet would be a small affair when placed alongside the Vatican.” On January 6, the Union stated that its rival newspaper from Nevada City had “erected the Palace Hotel out of peculiar material, and when Ralston reads that paper's article he will be much mortified.’ The Transcript noted that the ranch had been sold for $15,000, the price “being governed by the amount of oak timber upon the ranch.” Charles Fayette McGlashan, famed antiChinese editor of the Truckee Republican and author of the History of the Donner Party, rode the narrow gauge railroad in May of 1878, and his observations of that trip appeared in the Sacramento Bee that same month. McGlashan mentioned “the price of the ranch was $12,000.” Our research at the Nevada County Recorder’s Office, however, revealed that Barker received

two payments of $8,000 “in gold coin” each, and an additional one of $500, for a total of $16,500. The three transactions —“filed at the request of David M. Barker’—were recorded on December 11 and 18, 1875, almost four months after Ralston’s accidental drowning of August 27. William Sharon, Thomas Brown, A.J. Ralston, and J.D. Fry, executors of Ralston’s estate, made the first two $8,000 payments; while Lizzie Fry Ralston, “widow and sole divisee under the will and testament” of her late husband, paid the remaining $500 balance. On February 17, 1875, the Union reported that Geisendorffer’s sawmill, “which will saw the oak timber for the Palace Hotel, will soon start up. The mill will have to run night and day and Sundays also to complete the contract,” as the lumber ‘“‘must be sawed by May Ist,” the newspaper stated. No further information on that topic appeared in the Union until April 4, when that newspaper announced that the Barker Ranch was “‘the scene of busy lumbering operations.” The ranch contained ‘‘a large number of fine black oak trees,” where Geisendorffer was “engaged in sawing up this black oak into lumber of various dimensions. A force of Chinese wood choppers are felling the trees and sawing off the butt ends. . .and splitting the remainder for cord wood.” The lumber, when sawed, would be hauled directly to Colfax and from: thence shipped by rail to San Francisco, where “it is again sawed into small blocks and otherwise prepared for flooring.” Moreover, the Union stated that “Besides the lumber shipped, the sound roots and knots of the oak are also sent below to be worked up for the embellishment” of the Palace Hotel. “The sound black oak of these foothills,’ the Union remarked, ‘“‘makes an excellent finishing wood and the proprietors of the hotel being made aware of its value are going to use a large amount of it in the Palace, and at no point in the State could so fine a body of black oak be produced so convenient to an easy shipping point as that which is found at the Barker Ranch.” In what is known as an ironic twist of fate, those hundreds of black oak trees, milled into some 500,000 feet of timber, never graced the floors of “the world’s grandest hotel.” Both Lyman (whom we previously mentioned earlier) and Oscar Lewis, author of Bonanza Inn, substantially agree that ‘“‘Not until after the deal was made did Ralston discover that they were not the variety of oaks from which flooring could be made.” Lyman states that ““‘When Ralston failed to use a single plank from those felled trees, Sharon demurred, but said nothing.” The question now is, whatever happened to those oak planks? We recently wrote to Mr. Donald Timbie, General Manager and VicePresident of the Sheraton-Palace Hotel at San Francisco, who stated that “we do not know what happened to the wood.” Likewise, the San Francisco Chronicle told us that there are no newspaper records in its morgue prior to April, 1906, when the famed earthquake and subsequent fire of April 18-19, destroyed both the Palace Hotel and the Chronicle buildings. On the whereabouts of that oak wood, we surmise that the oak planks, which were not used for flooring of the Palace Hotel, might have been utilized as decorative elements in the hotel as the Union of April 4, 1875, postulated; or were sold to the highest bidder for whatever building purposes; or went up in smoke as firewood. Neither the Union nor the Transcript reported any further information on those missing oak planks for the years 1875 and 1876, and we therefore ask our readers to help us solve that puzzle. For references, see page 16, top.