Guest Blogger – Kathleen Denly – Cakes and Kisses

Have you ever been let down or even betrayed by someone you trusted? How did you respond and did it differ from how Scripture instructs us to respond? This is the major theme of my interquel novella Cakes and Kisses. So when I discovered the following event described in the June 9, 1854 edition of the Daily Alta California I knew it was perfect for my story.

“View of San Francisco taken from Telegraph Hill 1850”

“Another Squatter Disturbance — At a squatter disturbance, which occurred yesterday morning on Front street below Mission, a woman who lived in a house which a party were endeavoring to take down, became so incensed that she laid her baby down, picked up a shovel, and attacked Capt. Folsom. After she was disarmed of this weapon she went into the house and brought out a revolver, with which she endeavored to shoot the same party. The police interfered and prevented the woman from doing harm.” [spelling, punctuation, and capitalization have been maintained from the original article]

During my research I have encountered many similar “squatter riots” or “disturbances,” as the newspapers referred to them, but this one caught my attention because of the lone woman and child facing a group of men determined to see her homeless. Not only did it closely parallel the essence of the situation my heroine found herself in, it brought to mind the numerous accounts I have read of women being abandoned in San Francisco by husbands who headed for the gold fields—sometimes never to be heard from again. While some of these women were widowed by the harsh mining conditions, others were permanently abandoned by husbands who found themselves weary of being married. These women faced the daunting challenge of learning to survive in a burgeoning town fraught with criminal activity, an insufficient police force, and a frequently corrupt justice system.

Daily Alta California, November 22, 1851 — …the present police force is not sufficiently large to guard effectually against the commission of crime…

Daily Alta California, February 24, 1854 — …we think the force is scarcely sufficient, that our growing city demands a larger one…

Domingo Ghirardelli in San Francisco circ 1862

All of this dark history fit well with my theme.

However, not all of San Francisco’s history is dark and gloomy. One of my favorite parts of the city’s history involves the world famous Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. No doubt you’ve seen Ghirardelli chocolates in your local store and may even have received a Ghirardelli chocolate or two in your Christmas stocking. What you may not know is that the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company has been around since the nineteenth century and was founded in San Francisco, California, by Domingo Ghirardelli.

“Hydraulic mining for gold in California”

Born in 1817 Rapallo, Italy, as Domenico Ghirardelli, he apprenticed with a local candy maker at a young age. He later sailed to Uruguay with his wife to work in a chocolate and coffee business and changed his Italian first name to the Spanish equivalent, Domingo. In 1847 Ghirardelli was operating a store in Peru when his neighbor, James Lick, moved to San Francisco, bringing with him 600 pounds of Ghirardelli’s chocolate.

Like many men, Ghirardelli left his family behind to join the rush of 1849 and seek gold among California’s hills. Not long after arriving, he gave up prospecting and opened a tent-based general store in Stockton, California where he offered supplies as well as confections to minors. In 1850 he opened a second store in San Francisco but in 1851 both stores burned to the ground.

Ghirardelli also had a store in Hornitos, California from 1856-1859. The historical marker at this location was my first discovery of Ghirardelli’s connection to California.

Demonstrating incredible resilience, Ghirardelli used what he had left to open the Cairo Coffee House in San Francisco. Unfortunately his coffee house proved unsuccessful. So he acquired a partner and opened a new store named “Ghirardelli and Girard,” again in San Francisco. This store did well enough that by 1851 Ghirardelli was able to send for his family to join him in California. In 1852, the company changed its name “D. Ghirardelli & Co. “ and was incorporated. It has been in continuous operation ever since—eventually becoming the modern-day Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.

“Wife of Domenico Ghirardelli, founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate empire.”

I’ve been fascinated by this sweet part of San Francisco’s history for more than two decades, so incorporating Ghirardelli’s chocolate and his San Francisco store into my novella, Cakes and Kisses, was a piece of cake. (I couldn’t resist.)

Cakes and Kisses (~49,000 words) releases December 1, 2022 and will be available for FREE to my newsletter subscribers for thirty days. After which, it will be available for purchase through Amazon. Click here to subscribe!

 

***Giveaway***

To win an ebook copy of my debut novel, Waltz in the Wilderness, (which introduces the heroine of Cakes and Kisses), leave a comment below letting me know which type of chocolate you prefer.

NOTE: All newspaper quotes used in this post are in the public domain and were found at: California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside, <http://cdnc.ucr.edu>.

 

Connect with Kathleen here:

http://www.KathleenDenly.com

 

 

Buried Ships of San Francisco

By Jeannie Watt

Jeannie Watt 2Hi everyone and Happy Wednesday! I was fortunate to be able to spend the past weekend in my favorite
city, San Francisco, with my family. I love the history of this city, so thought I’d share a bit about the lost ships for those that are unfamiliar with this rather unique facet of the area.

Before the California Gold Rush, San Francisco was a quiet port, with a population of several hundred
people. After the rush, the population swelled to more than 42,000–25,000 of which arrived by water.  Ships poured into the harbor, dropping off would-be prospectors, miners and speculators as well as people starting businesses to support the gold miners.

Many of the ships that anchored in the harbor never set sail again. At one point there were more than 500 ships in the harbor, many of which were totally abandoned. Eventually some of the ships were refurbished and put back into service, while others rotted away at their moorings.

A ship-breaking yard, known as Rotten Row, began operation. Crews of mostly Chinese workers would break down ships and sell the wood and metal, or re-purpose the ships into bars, businesses, hotels and storage units. There is even record of a jail and church being build out of refurbished ships.

As business boomed in San Francisco, the locals wanted to fill the shallow part of the harbor in order to allow larger ships to unload cargo in the deeper parts. The easiest way to do this was to sell water lots, which the owners were required to fill with material to bring it above sea level. In order to have title, the owner needed to have real property on the lot and an easy way to do that was to sink a ship on it, prior to filling. Another ways to get a water lot was to sink a ship on it first, and then lay claim to the land around the ship as part of the salvage. Many ships sank in the dead of night.

Map showing the original shoreline (dotted line) and the resting place of several ships.

The original coastline of San Francisco began where the hills hit the water.The flat areas that now make up the Embarcadero and Financial District were once underwater. Eventually a seawall was built in 1871, creating the current shoreline. Between the seawall and the original coasts are the remains of as many as 75 buried ships.

The Old Ship Saloon, still in operation, opened in 1851 in the hull of the Arkansas. Original patrons had to walk up a plank to enter the saloon.

Oil painting of the Niantic
Oil painting of the Niantic

The most inland known ship, the Niantic, was beached on the corner of Clay and Sansome Streets in the Financial District in 1849 and served as a storehouse until the fire of 1851 leveled her to the ground and she was buried.

The ship Euphemia became the local prison in 1850. During the day the prisoners would work on a chain gang and in the evening return to the ship to be locked in the hold. The conditions on the Euphemia worsened throughout the year and eventually a new prison was built in 1851. The fate of the Euphemia was unknown until her remains were dug up in 1921 at the corner of Battery and Sacramento streets. [Note: There is still some controversy as to whether that particular ship is the Euphemia.] In 1925 the store ship Apollo was discovered nearby.

More recent discoveries have been made and most have been reburied, with buildings going in over the top of them.

The ship Rome was discovered while building a Muni tunnel at the foot of Market Street. The ship was too large to excavate, so the tunnel was built through the hull of the ship.

If you’re ever in San Francisco, strolling along the Embarcadero, remember than you may well be literally walking over the top of the ships that helped build the city.