Stephanie Kesey married Zane Kesey, the son of Ken Kesey. I didn’t know Steph was a artist until after she “blocked” (unfriended me on facebook) after I failed to heed HER ORDER, that came too late, because, I already made me some fine connections, one of them to my friend, Stefan Eins, whose work has hung in MOMA. Stefan made graffiti art a true art form. The Creamery mural was seen as graffiti that the locals wanted – gone! There was a marijuana plant growing in a milk can at the end of the rainbow. The artist was a member of the Hog Farm, and is a supporter of Winnarainbow, as is the Bill Graham foundation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_Moda

“STOP trying to connect such mundane coincidences.”

“trying is not the right word, unless Steph suggests her job is to thwart any and all connections folks try to make to her late step-father, because, she is a co-owner of key-z productions where many mundane objects and connections are made – THEN ASSIGNED A PRICE TAG! Before we go any FURTHER, I am copyrighting the image of Ken’s jumpsuit he wore while talking to a Hell’s Angel. (see above)

http://www.key-z.com/

“I have asked you repeatedly to stop with your posts. If you insist on continuiing I will block you.”

“No you did not. You ONCE asked me to stop making connections. I am an artist. This is what we do. My family constitutes a artistic dynasty. If you block me, I will blog on your censorship. STOP taking yourself so seriously, which your father-in-law, and the pranksters, considered a sin.”

Here’s a connection that I make – outside the ward – and thus it is not subject to censorhip! Stephanie – and nurse Ratched!

Yesterday I discovered one of my great grandfathers founded a Turnverein Hall on Bush Street in San Francisco. This hall was a place one could go hear music and practice gymnastics. The Seamens Friendly Union met here, and the Vigilance Committee.  Plays were performed, and debates held. This is the radical root of San Francisco that I have traced to the Longshoreman’s Hall and the first Acid Tests.  The Turner hall offered music and other entertainment as an alternative to gambling and prostitution. My father was a Merchant Marine and would be pleased to know the first institution for furthering sailor rights met in the Bush hall.

“All seamen are invited to attend at the Turn Verein Hall on Bush Street between Stockton and Powell Streets on Thursday Evening, January 11 at 7 1/2 o’clock to form a Seamens Society for the Pacific Coast.”

The Vigilance Committee combatted corruption and violence. These were idealists that lay the groundwork for a city famous for it cultural revolutions.

“Flaunting their rebellious spirit, the gymnasts of Vormärz wore their hair long and sported large black hats decorated with a rooster feather”

Above are my grandparents having picnic in the Oakland Hills. There is a sharpshooters rifle hanging in the tree.  Janke had marksman contests Belmont Park. Many Turnverein were Socialists and Marxists.

Jon Presco

https://rosamondpress.com/2012/06/09/william-janke-on-haight-st/

http://art.famsf.org/wa-janke-founded-belmont-picnic-grounds-and-first-turn-verein-bush-street-39933

“W.A. Janke, founded the Belmont Picnic Grounds, and the first Turn Verein on Bush Street.”

Yesterday I received information from Shirley Schwoerer of the Redwood City Library, that said my ancestor, Carl August Janke, was instrumental in establishing a Turnverien in Belmont, and the Bay Area. Was it the first?

The membership of the new clubs was more inclusive, as the cor of students and academics which had made up the rank and file of the Turnverein in its early years was joined by a large contingent of craft workers, along with many Jewish members, often in positions of leadership. These gymnastic clubs were often closely aligned with workers’ organizations and democratic clubs with whom they shared a desire for reform and a rejection of traditional hierarchies.

They even imparted a new spirit to their gymnastic program by initiating training sessions for children and, far more radical in light of the times, for women as well. Flaunting their rebellious spirit, the gymnasts of Vormärz wore their hair long and sported large black hats decorated with a rooster feather instead of the more formal attire of the Biedermeier period.

Given the radicalization of the movement in the 1840s, it is not surprising that the German gymnasts were directly involved in the 1848 revolutions. Turnverein leaders won renown for their leading roles in local uprisings,

The Turnverein as an organization was most closely associated with the uprisings in Baden, the center of the radical sentiment in southwest Germany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turners

http://patch.com/california/sanrafael/history-street-name-the-only-remnant-of-sharp-shooter

The first organization of seamen in the United States occurred in January of 1866 when the following notice appeared in a San Francisco paper:

Seamens Friendly Union Society
All seamen are invited to attend at the Turn Verein Hall on Bush Street between Stockton and Powell Streets on Thursday Evening, January 11 at 7 1/2 o’clock to form a Seamens Society for the Pacific Coast.

This meeting resulted in organization of the Seamens Friendly Union and Protective Society. Alfred Enquist was elected president and George McAlpine, secretary. It was the first organization of seamen in this country, perhaps the first in the world. In 1875, the United Seamen’s Association was formed in the port of New York, and it sent a delegation to Congress to petition for laws to protect seamen. The delegation, according to a news report in The New York Times of January 21, was “graciously received by the President.”

No more was heard of this organization.

The Seamen’s Friendly Union and Protective Society in San Francisco did not last long, and the next organization to come along was the Seamen’s Protective Union formed in San Francisco in 1878 with 800 members. It, too, had a short life.

https://www.seafarers.org/aboutthesiu/history.asp

http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/rz/turnvere.htm

The new Committee of Vigilance enrolled about fifteen hundred people that first day in 1856. Meanwhile a larger meeting place was secured at Turn Verein Hall on Bush Street and in that hall later that evening the committee met again and signed another five hundred or so men. After some discussion, William Coleman proposed dividing into companies of a hundred men in Roman style and forming them into regiments of ten companies each. Since this met with a general consent men were organized according to their number, from one to one hundred and so on until there were fifteen regiments. They were to select the best men, from a military standpoint, from each company to lead them.

http://www.examiner.com/topic/committee-of-vigilance

http://californiamilitaryhistory.org/Sheman2.html

Letters written during the time of the great Vigilance Committee of 1856 at San Francisco, and containing some account of its work as viewed by an interested resident of the place, are rare in the literature of the subject, and are sure to be valuable. How much more must this be true of letters written under such circumstances by General W. T. Sherman. The case for the Vigilance Committee is authoritatively stated in the November number of this magazine, by the former president of the committee, Mr. William T. Coleman. Sherman’s relation to the committee has been described by himself in his “Memoirs,” and that account has led to considerable controversy.

The following is an extract from a letter, no date, from General Sherman to Major Turner of St. Louis, contained in a letter from Mrs. Sherman, dated May 18, 1856, to her father, Mr. Thomas Ewing. The letter to Major Turner, as appears from its contents, was also completed on Sunday, May 18, but was begun on Saturday.

I got C.K. Garrison to go with me, and we met the Governor and his brother on the wharf, and walked up to the International Hotel on Jackson Street, above Montgomery. We discussed the state of affairs fully; and Johnson, on learning that his particular friend, William T. Coleman, was president of the Vigilance Committee, proposed to go and see him. En route, we stopped at King’s room, ascertained that he was slowly sinking, and could not live long; and then near midnight we walked to the Turnverein Hall, where the committee was known to be sitting in consultation. This hall was on Bush Street, at about the intersection of Stockton. It lighted up within, but the door was locked. The Governor knocked at the door, and in inquiry from inside–“Who’s there?”–gave his name. After some delay we were admitted into a sort of vestibule, beyond which was a large hall, and we could hear the suppressed voices of a multitude. We were shown into a bar-room to the right, when the Governor asked to see Coleman. The man left us, went into the main hall, and soon returned with Coleman, who was pale and agitated. After shaking hands all round, the Governor said, “Coleman, what the devil is the matter here?” Coleman rejoined that “the people were tired of it, and had no faith in the officers of the law.” A general conversation then followed, in which it was admitted that King would die, and that Casey must be executed; but the manner of execution was the thing to be settled, Coleman contending that the people would do it without trusting the courts or the sheriff. It so happened that at that time Judge Norton was on the bench of the court having jurisdiction, and he was universally recognized as an able and upright man, whom no one could or did mistrust; and it also happened that a grand-jury was then in session. Johnson argued that the time had passed in California for mobs and vigilance committees, and said if Coleman and his associates would use their influence to support the law, he (the Governor) would undertake that, as soon as King died, the grand-jury should indict, that Judge Norton would try the murderer, and the whole proceeding should be as speedy as decency would allow. Then Coleman said “the people had no confidence in Scannell, the sheriff,” who was, he said, in collusion with the rowdy element of San Francisco. Johnson then offered to be personally responsible that Casey should be safely guarded, and should be forthcoming for trial and execution at the proper time. I remember very well Johnson’s asserting that he had no right to make these stipulations, and maybe no power to fulfill them; but he did it to save the city and state from the disgrace of a mob. Coleman disclaimed that the vigilance organization was a “mob,” admitted that the proposition of the Governor was fair, and all he or any one should ask; and added, if we would wait awhile, he would submit it to the council, and bring back an answer. We waited nearly an hour, and could hear the hum of voices in the hall, but no words, when Coleman came back, accompanied by a committee, of which I think the two brothers Arrington, Thomas Smiley the auctioneer, Seymour, Truett, and others, were members. The whole conversation was gone over again, and the Governor’s proposition was positively agreed to, with this further condition, that the Vigilance Committee should send into the jail a small force of their own men, to make certain that Casey should not be carried off or allowed to escape. The Governor, his brother William, Garrison, and I, then went up to the jail, where we found the sheriff and his posse-comitatus of police and citizens. These were styled the “Law-and-Order party,” and some of them took offense that the Governor should have held communication with the “damned rebels,” and several of them left the jail; but the sheriff seemed to agree with the Governor that what he had done was right and best; and, while we were there, some eight or ten armed men arrived from the Vigilance Committee, and were received by the sheriff (Scannell) as part of his regular posse.

http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/sherman2.html

https://rosamondpress.com/2014/11/24/come-to-magic-mountain/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kl6cCp_eWc

One prominent critic of the San Francisco vigilantes was General W. T. Sherman, who resigned from his position as Major-general of the Second Division of Militia in San Francisco. In his memoirs, Sherman wrote:

As [the vigilantes] controlled the press, they wrote their own history, and the world generally gives them the credit of having purged San Francisco of rowdies and roughs; but their success has given great stimulus to a dangerous principle, that would at any time justify the mob in seizing all the power of government; and who is to say that the Vigilance Committee may not be composed of the worst, instead of the best, elements of a community? Indeed, in San Francisco, as soon as it was demonstrated that the real power had passed from the City Hall to the committee room, the same set of bailiffs, constables, and rowdies that had infested the City Hall were found in the employment of the “Vigilantes.”[10

I just discovered the Dimond District of Oakland is celebrating Oktoberfest a traditional German celebration. The Presco Children spent much time playing in Dimond Park and shopped in Dimond where our great grandfather, William Broderick, and his wife, Alice Stuttmiester-Broderick, lived. Above is a post card addressed to Willie using the Dimond P.O. and the city of Fruitvale that is no more, it becoming a part of Oakland. This is a very rare address. I am going to investigate about donating it to the Dimond Association which saved the Dimond Post Office. I am going to try to make this P.O. a sister P.O. of the Eugene P.O.

I attended several Boy Scout events in Dimond Park where we swam in the pool and the creek. As kids, we built dams up and down Sausal Creek. Dimond Canyon was our backyard. There was a walkway from San Sebastion Avenue that took you to Park Blvd. that travails Dimond Canyon. On the other side is a trail that used to be a Stagecoach road.

Hugh Dimond owned the land where he built a commercial laundry plant that washed linen and clothes brought across the bay from San Francisco that had problems with a fresh and clean water supply. There was a dryng problem with the fog.  The clothes were unloaded at a dock in the estuary and brought up 9th. Avenue.

‘The Dimond’ is acquiring a identity if its own. We were an admixture of German families who came to own a fruit farm below ‘The Hights’ the Poet and Artist Colony founded by the Pre-Raphaelite Poet, Joaquin Miller who used to escort my grandmother, Melba Charlotte Broderick to San Francisco on the Fruit Vale Trolly. Mott had plans for Sausal Creek similar to the Woodminster Cascade that was the vision of Jaunita Miller who sponsored a play about the Pre-Raphaelites. Then there is the Janke theme park across the by in Belmont.

Below is a the image of Rena Easton that was made into a poster for the University of Nebraska Oktoberfest. We stayed on Congress Ave. The painting I did of my muse inspired my late sister, Christine Rosamond, to take up art.  It takes awhile for a city or place to be branded. My family history is now a huge part of that branding.

Jon Presco

President: Royal Rosamond Press.

https://rosamondpress.com/2015/02/02/the-arena-of-the-cosmic-event/

In recent years, some have started to include the article “the” in front of Dimond, as in “I live in the Dimond” or “Oaktoberfest in the Dimond.” Some long-time residents prefer the usage without the article “the”: for example, “I live in Dimond” or “I went shopping in Dimond today.” For them, saying “the Dimond District” is acceptable, however.

While San Francisco hosted its 118th annual Oktoberfest last week, Oakland celebrated its German heritage with its first-ever Oktoberfest in the Dimond district, centered at MacArthur Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue.

The Oct. 4th event showcased local bands and breweries, community businesses, Dimond history, German food and dance, traditional “oompah” music and an open-air beer garden reminiscent of the many German American social clubs and entertainment halls that lined MacArthur Boulevard from the 1890s until mid-century.

Although the Dimond is known now for its diverse Asian and Latino influences it was once the center of the East Bay’s German American community. By the turn of the century, the Dimond and much of Fruitvale had a reputation as an area of German beer gardens, fruit orchards, dairy farms and parks, according to the Oakland Heritage Alliance’s newsletter.

I am the third scout from the right. The photo above was taken by Melba Broderick on the Russian River. I am on the left. I look like my grandson, Tyler Hunt.

In 1895 Charles Tepper, a German army captain, bought land along Hopkins Street, now MacArthur Boulevard, just west of Fruitvale Avenue and built a two-story hotel, a dance hall, and garden surrounding these that shaded a picnic area. Nearby Tepper’s Gardens was Neckhaus Gardens, Bauerhofer’s Gardens and the Hermitage, which was famous for its “French dinners and dancing girls,” according to a Sept. 16, 1962 article of the Oakland Tribune.

While this may be the Dimond’s first Oktoberfest, Jean Langmuir, a librarian in the Oakland history room of the Oakland Public Library, also found a 1963 program for “Deutscher Tag,” or German Day, held on Oct. 13 by the United German American Society of the East Bay. The society, which still exists today, celebrated German American heritage with German big bands and patriotic songs on East 14th Street – International Boulevard.

Tepper’s was eventually closed by the enforcement of Prohibition. The Dimond Improvement Association, which sponsored last Saturday’s festival, pored over city archives to pinpoint precisely where Tepper’s beer garden stood in order to build the Oktoberfest garden in the same spot, according to librarian Kathleen DiGiovanni.

There, said the 1962 Tribune article, “gay merrymakers” ate bratwurst and spaetzle, danced German polka and sipped beers from Brooklyn Brewery on East 14th Street. Horse-drawn coaches and double-decker, mohair-upholstered streetcars of the Highland Park and Fruitvale lines delivered loads of revelers to the gardens’ gates and to the many German American businesses along now-MacArthur Boulevard.

Daniel Swafford, who is on the board of the DIA, said the association had been thinking of bringing back the beer hall tradition to the area for many years. After the success of the street festival celebrating the building of Farmer Joe’s on Fruitvale Avenue a few years ago, which he estimated 5,000 people attended, the association decided that an Oktoberfest celebration was a natural fit for the history of the area.

He remembered his grandmother, who had lived in the district since the 1930s, telling him stories of the glory days of the area, when it was an entertainment and shopping hotspot. The building that is now Farmer Joe’s was a vaudeville theater in the ’20s, later a movie theater, and the Dimond also featured an ice skating rink and bowling alley.

The building that was Tepper’s hotel still stands just behind the 2 Star Market on MacArthur Boulevard, which along with the German elderly home Altenheim, established in 1893, are the only surviving landmarks of the old German community of the Dimond and Upper Fruitvale. But with the revival of the neighborhood’s past social and cultural heritage, residents of the Dimond district are strengthening new communities in the area by bringing them together to socialize and celebrate.

A flowery description of the Dimond from 1896 titled “Dimond the Beautiful” says “Fruitvale is for beauty one of the notable avenues in this country.” ²

https://localwiki.org/oakland/Dimond_District

The name (originally Fruit Vale) comes from the many fruit orchards (largely apricot and cherry) which dominated the area in the late 19th century. After the 1906 earthquake, the onslaught of refugees from San Francisco caused a population boom, and the unincorporated neighborhood was annexed into the City of Oakland by 1909.

http://www.museumca.org/creeks/Book10SausWalk.html

https://oaklandgeology.wordpress.com/category/sausal-creek-watershed/

http://dimondoakland.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_dimondoakland_archive.html

https://fruitvaleoakland.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/a-short-history-of-dimond-canyon-and-sausal-creek/

https://sodpo.wordpress.com/news/

http://oaklandlocal.com/2009/10/local-community-residents-save-the-dimond-station-post-office-celebrate-on-youtube/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a853Ui1RVU

­

There was a German club called The Hermitage that featured “French dancing girls” that may have been inspired by the Moulin Rouge in Paris. This Beer Garden was located in Fruit Vale, a haven for German immigrants. My kindred had a fruit orchard there.

Above is the Marriage Certificate of Alice Lillie Stuttmeister of Oakland, who married William Frederick Broderick of Fruit Vale, in 1897. Their daughter, Melba Broderick, married Victor Hugo Presco. whose father came from Bohemia Germany. Did William go to see the French dancing girls, and lewd sex acts performed in the gazebos?  This may constitute the first Bohemian scene for adults looking for a alternative lifestyle. Here is a Garden of Earthly Delights in the New World, that was closed down by the clergy and Temperance Movement. Here is the model for the Ghost Ship and other places I have blogged on. It is my intent to present this history to elected officials of Oakland, and bid the, to support  Oakland’s Bohemian roots, and make sure everyone who participates, is safe. You can see Tepper’s house in back of the stores on MacArthur Blvd. Joaquin Miller escorted Melba on the electrical rail seen below.

Jon Presco

Charlie Tepper, opened a creekside hotel and beer garden on the land he bought from Hugh Dimond, at MacArthur between Dimond and Canon Avenues. (The hotel building still stands behind the shops at 2030 MacArthur Boulevard.) Many residents enjoyed picnics and leisurely afternoons beneath the trees of Tepper’s Gardens, next to the creek. On the corner opposite Tepper’s stood the infamous Hermitage House, which featured “French dancing girls.” At the rear of the hotel was a garden with two cottages and five gazebos, in which some questionable acts allegedly took place. Neighbors and church groups eventually pressured officials into closing the “pleasure palace,” and it was quickly replaced by shops. Nearby, other beer gardens, like the Neckhaus, nestled on Sausal Creek’s banks, and Bauerhofer’s (where a post office sits today), featured German bands and songs and an occasional brawl among patrons.

http://www.documents.sausalcreek.org/Sausal_History.pdf

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/History_of_Oakland,_California

http://kalw.org/term/fruitvale#stream/0

“It might be well to state right here that the Board of Supervisors is determined to clean out everything of a disorderly character in Alameda County.” The Clerk was directed to notify the proper authorities that the licenses were revoked and that no liquors can be sold at the resorts.

The men who were prime movers in this successful crusade were the Rev. Franklin Rhoda, William C. Ralston, F. C. Hinckley, W. S. Dunlevy and William Lowenburg, with the backing of all the citizens and residents in Upper Fruitvale.

Named for the orchards planted by 19th-century German settlers, Fruitvale was once considered Oakland’s second downtown. Prior to World War II, it had a very strong economy, as evidenced by banks, shops, a Montgomery Ward department store, mansions, and a rich inventory of Victorian-style homes. The war led to an economic boom that further benefited the district with many factories locating there. These factories created jobs and attracted large numbers of Hispanic and African American workers to the neighborhood. After the war, many of the factories closed and both Fruitvale and all of Oakland entered an era of economic decline. The growing suburbanization and

http://excelsiorcenter.org/altenheim-historical-highlights/

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/environmental_justice/case_studies/case6.cfm

2016 Oaktoberfest in the Dimond
Saturday, October 1, 2016 | 11 am to 6 pm
MacArthur Blvd. and Fruitvale Ave., Oakland
FREE entry, but drink tickets are available for advance purchase.

Oaktoberfest will bring world-class beer to the tented beer hall, serving steins of traditional German flavors and regional brew pub favorites.

Highlights include a traditional Biergarten, Eco Fair, Kid’s Area with Root Biergarten, German style homebrew competition featured in the homebrewers’ alley, and vendors from around the Bay. Celebrate Oktoberfest, Oakland style, in the Dimond at Fruitvale and MacArthur.

2016 Entertainment Lineup

http://www.documents.sausalcreek.org/Sausal_History.pdf

Between 1850 and 1859, Antonio Peralta sold off much of his remaining land, and the rancho soon became farmland. The soils that had been deposited over time as Sausal Creek meandered back and forth in its floodplain proved to be quite productive. In 1856 Henderson Luelling, a Quaker nurseryman, brought 700 cherry trees from Oregon and planted them in 400 acres he had purchased along Sausal Creek, christening the area “Fruit Vale.” Later he added apple and pear trees, and Fruit Vale’s orchards became well known. (One of these apple trees is still alive and can be seen today at 2125 Woodbine Avenue in Oakland.) Then, in 1859, Frederick Rhoda arrived, one of the first of many Germans to settle in what is now the Dimond District. On the 217 acres he purchased next to Sausal Creek, Rhoda grew Royal Ann cherries and, in 1869 when the Transcontinental Railroad came to Oakland, shipped them to the East Coast– the first California-grown fruit sold in the East. The resident told of hiking along a narrow road that wound up the hill, following the path of Sausal Creek. Near today’s Leimert Avenue bridge, hikers had to stop and pay a five-cent toll to continue up the hills!

Estate owners were not the only people who enjoyed Sausal Creek’s charms. Horsedrawn streetcars, common in the Fruitvale area by 1875, brought people up to Dimond Canyon and other areas in the hills for Sunday outings and picnics alongside the creek, where picnickers relished the delicious berries growing next to the creek. On one occasion, a streetcar on the old Highland Park and Fruit Vale Railroad tipped over the ravine in Dimond Canyon and rolled down the hill into the creek. Officials attributed the accident to a very

In the 1890s, upper Fruitvale, (from just south of MacArthur Boulevard north through the hills and stretching a few blocks to the east and west of Dimond Canyon), looked like a small German town. However, the population of the area was becoming more diverse: in addition to the Chinese who were brought into the area as workers, a number of Scandinavians established themselves in the Sausal Creek watershed. Many started dairies and feed businesses: the area was so rural that, while sitting in classes, school children looked out upon dairy cattle grazing in surrounding pastures.

In the late 1890s, one of the original German settlers of Fruitvale, Jacob Bold, built a three-bedroom wood-frame home on Minnesota Street. His brother, John Bold, was the proprietor of The Villa, a hotel and saloon at Fruitvale Avenue and East 10th Street. The Bolds played an important role in establishing St. Elizabeth’s, one of the first German Catholic churches in Fruitvale. Another German immigrant, Charlie Tepper, opened a creekside hotel and beer garden on the land he bought from Hugh Dimond, at MacArthur between Dimond and Canon Avenues. (The hotel building still stands behind the shops at 2030

MacArthur Boulevard.) Many residents enjoyed picnics and leisurely afternoons beneath the trees of Tepper’s Gardens, next to the creek. On the corner opposite Tepper’s stood the infamous Hermitage House, which featured “French dancing girls.” At the rear of the hotel was a garden with two cottages and five gazebos, in which some questionable acts allegedly took place. Neighbors and church groups eventually pressured officials into closing the “pleasure palace,” and it was quickly replaced by shops. Nearby, other beer gardens, like the Neckhaus, nestled on Sausal Creek’s banks, and Bauerhofer’s (where a post office sits today), featured German bands and songs and an occasional brawl among patrons. A home for elderly German people, the Altenheim, was built nearby in 1893. The home standing on the site today, however, was built after the original building burned down in 1908. The home’s residents today are of many ethnicities.

In 1934, a massive landslide on McKillop Road was blamed on Sausal Creek. The Army Corps of Engineers attempted to subdue the creek with concrete, and throughout the ’30s and ’40s, many more attempts were made to “control” the creek. The Works Progress Administration tried to contain the creek with cement “walls” and poured concrete in its bed in an attempt to slow its flow. The dates of these projects (1939-1940) were stamped into the cement and can be seen today at various spots along the creek in Dimond Canyon. Railroad tracks were used to create blockades in the creek, as people were attempting to drive up the newly-paved creekbed.

https://localwiki.org/oakland/The_Hermitage

JOAQUIN MILLER FAVORS BACCHUS

Poet of Sierras Signs Liquor Application of Roadhouse.

Oakland Office San Francisco Call, 1118 Broadway, June 29.

Joaquin Miller, the “Poet of the Sierras,” would let no thirsty man go dry. He has come to the rescue of Bacchus and to-day the name of the hermit muse was read before the Board of Supervisors as one of those in favor of having . a liquor license granted to the famous old roadhouse in Upper Frultvale, “The Hermitage.” . “

Fred C. Schnarr made application to be permitted to again dispense Intoxicants over the bar of “The Hermitage” -and the “Poet of the Sierras,” whose home is on “The Heights” back of the once lively resort, was among the 85 residents in the precinct who are not opposed to eeelng the doors / of “The Hermitage” once more thrown open to those [ who would be pleased to drop in and quaff a goblet of sparkling wine or- a stein of popular beer. There was a petition against granting Schnarr a license ” filed •with the Board of Supervisors. It contained 83 signatures. ~ .

In the matter of the applications for liquor licenses in the precincts of Fruitvale and Brooklyn townships taken up by the Supervisors to-day under the new local option law the saloon ; element appeared to have the advantage, their petitions overruling the petitions of the protestants in the number of- signers.

STII/L FIGHT LICENSE OF THE OLD HEBMITAGE

Matter of Granting Petition of Fred Schnarr Postponed for Another Week.

OAKLAND, Aug. 17.— The Inspecting of the names of signers on the petition of Fred C. Schnarr for a liquor license for the old Hermitage at Frultvale before the Board of Supervisors progresses with utmost deliberation.

.When the matter was brought up before the board thia morning it was asserted that among the signers was a woman and that Schnarr did not have the necessary six out of the nearest ten residents.

A strenuous fight is being made against allowing the- notorious place to open again, and every means is being taken to block the passage of vne resolution. The question of whether a woman could be considered a legal signer was referred to the District Attorney, while a survey has to be made to settle which are the nearest ten residents. In, order that this may be done, the question went over for another week. ‘Yi-,’v

MIKE PROTESTS AGAINST DIVES

Fruitvale Residents Describe Scenes of Revelry.

Homes Desecrated by Loud, Unseemly Brawling in Beer Gardens.

Oakland Office San Francisco Call, 1118 Broadway, July 15.

Residents of Upper Fruitvale crowded the Supervisors* room to-day to protest against the granting of licenses to the saloons and beer gardens, against whose disorderly conduct they have long been agitating. * :-…’ Citizens of the wealthy suburb appeared: before the board and described scenes of revelry and brawling participated in by both male and female patrons of tha re* sorts In auestion. V J.* . Complaints were filed against the places kept by Charles Tepper, R. E. Taylor ana Mrs. B. Walliser, and protests were before the board against the renewal of licenses to Peter C. Nielsen and I_ Faure. the latter the proprietor of the notorious Hermitage.

Rev. F. B. Rhoda conducted the prose-* cutlon against Nielsen and Faure, who were defended by M. C. Chapman. In thd fight against the other three places Snook & Church appeared for the- protestants and A. I* Frlck for the accused. Frlck later withdrew because the board would not order the cases continued on account of non-compliance with the legal allow* ance of time within which to plead. Lawyers Not Wanted. Supervisor Mitchell said that lawyers were not needed there anyhow, as there was already wrangling enough, and aa for the time limit the board was competent to go ahead with an Investigation one time as well as another. Frlck retorted that he was not there to wranglebut for the protection of his clients’ in* terests. The board proceeded with the Faure and Nielsen cases first. Chapman asked that the charges be dismissed, as they were not regularly filed and contained no specific complaints. From the worfflngf of the protests, he said, it might b« seen that the residents wers objecting to all the saloons In Frultvale, whereas the Investigation was directed solely against his clients. The board refused to dismiss the case and asked for testimony In support of the protest. Rhoda said he would put no witnesses on the stand. Chapman accused the minister of wanting a chance to heap . abuse on his clients. He again asked for a dismissal, but the board dl« rected Mr. Rhoda to proceed. Rhoda said the protest was based on two technical points— first, that Faura and Nielsen signed each other’s petitions; second, that neither presented an affidavit of good character/ •¦:.’ : – ;r>vSupervisor Rowe said that If tho pro* testants had any testimony to support their claims they must offer It at once. Ira L. Aymer was then sworn, and testified that he had heard of: the ill-repute of the Hermitage as far away as Los Angeles before coming to Oakland. He sala that hoodlums stood out3lde the place ana insulted passersby, both ladies and gentleDaniel Wilmore testified that -he ha* seen women coming from the Hermitase* In an intoxicated condition. He said that the worst feature of the place was tha crowd of tough young men and women who came there from Oakland and San Francisco. _ . ‘,’. *;’ : _ ‘ ¦”. Charles Reynolds, an officer In the Salvation Army, testified that Faure, hla wife and his sons were in the habit ot applying abusive epithets to the army people during their meetings. . He said that carriages brought women there at night. _

His Home Desecrated. v Superintendent William Rutherforfl oC the California Cotton Mills said that h# home in Fruitvale was desecrated by tha riotous drunkenness of the frequenters or the resorts under investigation. “It la a farce,” he said, “to come hers time after time and protest against this outrage. The Supervisors should long: ago have compelled the District Attorney to institute proceedings against -thesej places.” Mr. Rutherford said that recently ha had seen fighting going on outside the Hermitage and told of seeing a man and woman come from the place too drunk to For the defense .Chapman offered the testimony of Constables Jerry Quinlan •and Cramer, Policeman Gardiner, W. S. Dunleavy” and John Ferren of the Oakland Transit Company to the effect that the Hermitage was a quiet and orderly, place. The board next took up the complaints against Mrs. Walllser. Charles Tapper and R. E. Taylor. After Judge- Frick*3 ¦withdrawal Tepper’a daughter represented him. The testimony against these>-re-sorts was similar to that in the other cases. One man said he had seen girl3 standing on-chaira at Tepptr’s and kicking at hats held for them by their male companions, the latter shouting “Higher!” He had seen both, boys and girls Intoxicated there, x , The Supervisors took tha protests under advisement until 10 o’clock to-morrow.

Notorious Hermitage Among the Places That Lose Their Licenses.

Oakland Office San Francisco Call, 1118 Broadway, July 16.

The Board of Supervisors to-day closed five Upper Fruitvale drinking resorts, including the Hermitage,which for nearly twenty years has been conducted at Dimond with a notoriety which is State wide. The licenses of Charles Tepper, Mrs. B. Walliser and Robert E. Taylor were also revoked by a unanimous vote of the board.

Leon Faure, proprietor of the Hermitage, had one supporter, Supervisor Church, who also opposed the closing of Peter C. Nielsen’s barroom. But the other members of the board declared they would not make fish of one and flesh of another.

The Hermitage was not singled out in the fight of the Fruitvalers against the saloons, but the place was, unfortunately for its owner, among the group of resorts which the anti-saloonists had determined to drive out of business. The decision of the board covers all but one of the Upper Fruitvale places where liquors are sold. The Neckhaus Gardens were allowed to retain their license because no evidence of disorder was introduced against the resort.

The action by the board was a complete victory for the men and women of Upper Fruitvale, who have been battling against the hoodlumlsm, depravity and disorder which have marked the conduct of some of the resorts that have been denied licenses.

When the Supervisors convened this morning to render their decision the lobby was packed with an interested audience from Fruitvale. Chairman Mitchell called up the resolutions on revocation of the Walliser, Tepper and Taylor licenses. The charges made against each resort were sustained by the board, and promptly the five members voted to close the places.

Supervisor Church said he would not have voted to close Tepper’s place, except that the proprietor had himself said that he was going out of business, so Church was ready to close the place at once.

When the applications of Faure and Nielsen were read Church was in favor of granting the renewal of the licenses. He said no evidence had been introduced to prove disorderly actions. But the other four members of the board did not agree with their confrere, and they sent the Hermitage into oblivion. Nielsen runs a saloon in connection with his grocery. There was no special complaint against him, except on the ground that the citizens of that suburb had determined, if possible, to close all saloons.

As soon as the voting had decided the fate of the resorts Chairman John Mitchell made the following announcement:

“It might be well to state right here that the Board of Supervisors is determined to clean out everything of a disorderly character in Alameda County.” The Clerk was directed to notify the proper authorities that the licenses were revoked and that no liquors can be sold at the resorts.

The men who were prime movers in this successful crusade were the Rev. Franklin Rhoda, William C. Ralston, F. C. Hinckley, W. S. Dunlevy and William Lowenburg, with the backing of all the citizens and residents in Upper Fruitvale.