Two weeks ago I talked to my sister, Vicki Presco, and my niece, Drew Benton, on the phone. Drew told me about getting paid for her commissioned art work, and I told her she inspired me to do a painting. I told my kindred I had been contemplating doing a painting from the photograph taken of Mary Magdalene Rosamond on Anacapa Island sitting under a tree. This photograph was taken by my grandfather, the writer, Royal Rosamond.
The next day I enlarged this photo on my computer so I could study it. To my dismay I noticed the man on the right was holding a gun. It looks like a 45 automatic. The two other men in the photo appear to be focused on the gun, while my grandmother tried to ignore it. Her eyes are cast down. She is not looking at her husband who has snapped the photo.
Yesterday I took this photo to Staples to get blown up. The woman who did the job was blown away by this image. She saw much drama in it, and even told someone on the phone, a movie can be made from it – after she convinced me to keep the gun in my painting. I was inspired again.
When I got home I taped this blow-up on my canvas I prepared so I could study it. It was then I noticed two eyes staring at me out of the shadows. My God, it’s a dog, a black dog. Is it a lab?
Two weeks I composed a long post wherein I talk about the custody battle over Britt, my thirteen year old stepdaughter. When Britt took the stand and asked who she preferred to live with, her real father, or me, she chose me – over her father. Britt’s court appointed advocate asked this question. You could hear a in drop.
Britt was brilliant. She had a very high I.Q. Her father was a powerful San Francisco attorney. Our attorney was up for a Judgeship and was in conflict with the judge who was the same judge who heard my case in Boston when I took the Mafia to court, and won. The reason I won, was because everyone loves dogs. In their attempt on my life, two of their hired goons made a bid mistake. When they kicked down the door to the managers apartment, thinking I lived there, they found a two month old black lab puppy, and cut its throat. They then took hold of the crying and drying puppy and smeared blood on all four walls of the studio apartment.
I heard all this as I rushed down three floors. My attorney advised me and my neighbors who had not been driven out by the threats, to move to the top floor for our personal safety. Some squatters had moved into the mangers apartment, a young hippie couple with a puppy. they were not home to protect their puppy from the monsters, who now called to me to come into that bloody apartment, because they had something for me.
I demanded they come out, and get out of the building. Two men emerged with bloody knives. I stood my ground and out up a barrier of white light as they came at me with evil smirks. That’s when Shaheb let out a long blast on the long plastic trumpet he owned, that he carried with him as he and three of my neighbors rushed down stairs after me. The killers folded their knives, made fresh a threat on my life, and left.
I rushed in to see if I could save the puppy, and was horrible at the sight of the blood that was still rolling down the walls. I went in search of the puppy, and found her stuffed behind the toilet. I cradled her in my arms, and wept. I wept as I wiped the blood, the evil message made just for me, from the walls, because I did not want anyone to see it. I felt ashamed. This was the result of our human vanity that I behledwhen I died on McClure’s Beach. I would not let anyone in that room till the blood was gone. I lived three blocks from the Kennedy house on Beacon Hill. I believe John Kennedy was murdered by the Mafia. Who a week later I met with in a room outside the courtroom. The judge had had it. Killing a puppy was beyond the pale. I sat at the end of long table with attorneys for the Mafia, the scoffing at me, and my long hair.
Above is a photo of me up a tree. I am holding Dottie Witherspoon cat that would walked behind us to the park. It is looking down at three dogs she is playing with, they chasing her up a tree, then, she springs down and chases them. Like me, this cat was fearless, even when the warlock was zapping her with his evil energy, he inviting her to come get petted, then giving her a exotic shock out the tip of his finger. He was trying to impress me, le t me see his dark powers he got after taking LSD. I told thus warlock to take a long look in my eyes and know what he is doing to this cat, I can do unto him, because I am much more powerful then he is.
“The reason I know this, is because anyone who would hurt a little animal is a weak little asshole!”
The warlock dare not look at me as he got up and left Dottie’s apartment.
This was three months after the killing of the puppy. I had been asked to watch after Dottie by my friend, Michelle who I met a year earlier when I lived in Roxbury. She moved in with her boyfriend. One day she points out this dude sitting in a car.
“He’s been there for two days. He is a Mafia chief. He wants us to help him find his ex-grilfriends who was my best friend in New Orleans. She took a belt with codes for drug shipments because she wanted out. He offered to pay our way to New Orleans so we can talk her in to giving the belt back. We are thinking of taking the money and flying somewhere else.
“Don’t tell me where, and never take mob money. They will find you and kill you. You have to tell him “No!” If he holds a gin to your head, say “No!” He is on a fishing expedition. He is in trouble with higher ups.”
“Will you go talk to him and arrange a meeting?”
I arranged a meeting at a black bar around the corner. When I told Michelle, she asked me to come with her. I thought for awhile, and…..
“Yes!”
No sooner seated in a booth in the back of the bar, the Mafia guy pulls out a 38 and points it at Michells head, and asks;
“Are you going to do it?”
Michelle looked him dead in the eyes, and said;
“No!” Just that. And he uncocked the gun and put it back in his coat’
“What are you drinking?” He asked.
Michelle was Dotties roommate and was moving back to New Orleans. he was concerned about Dottie who was forming a bond with the warlock.
“He’s news, into some real dark stuff. Dottie is a babe in the woods, she coming from a good family in South Carolina. She needs to be shielded.. Michelle used to be a member of the Process.
Above is the house Dottie and I lived in in Alameda Caifornia. We had the entire bottom floor. I rescued Dottie from the warlock. Dottie is kin to Louise Tevis Breckenridge Sharon. So is my niece, Drew Benton whom Vicki and I just rescued.
One of the reason Britt chose me was because my dog, Deva, loved Britt, and Britt loved Deva, my famous black lab. Thier love was uncondtional.
I asked Mary Ann for an anulment because our young marriage had been destroyed during the six month custody battle over a thirteen year old child who chose me, and now I was afraid her father’s legal team would find out I was on SSI because I suffer from PTSD. According to my flesh and blood daughter, this makes me a parastite.
After I won my case against the Mafia, I ran into my attorney at a City of Boston festival.
“John. I want you to meet someone!”
“Mr. Mayor. This is John Presco.”
Mayor White extended his hand, and said;
“Let me shake your hand. It takes allot of guts to stand up to those people.”
I have long considered my grandmother Mary, a Modonna. In the photo above, Mary’s hand is on the dogs neck where the gun is pointed. Some wounds defy time, and last forever.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2012
Louise Tevis Breckenridge Sharon (1858-1938)
We are privileged to be able to offer a selection of exciting San Francisco made and retailed flatware owned by one of San Francisco’s leading 19th century families who married into the English nobility.
Louise Tevis Breckenridge Sharon, was the daughter of Lloyd Tevis, president of Wells Fargo and one of the richest men in California. When he became president of Wells Fargo, it was an express (coach) company; when he retired it was a bank as we know it today. Tevis was assessed by the state of California as having a fortune worth $1,590,000.00 in 18801.
Louise married John Witherspoon Breckenridge, son of Congressman, Senator, Vice President, Presidential Candidate and Confederate General John C. Breckenridge, c. 1878 and lived in San Rafael, CA. Their marriage ended in divorce and she married secondly Frederick W. Sharon.
Frederick Sharon was the son of Senator William Sharon (right), one of California’s very richest men. Sharon arrived in San Francisco in 1849, first investing in real estate, then also in mining and banking. By 1880, the state of California assessed his personal fortune at $4,470,000.002 and he was the largest single taxpayer in the state. Louise and Frederick were married at Sharon’s 55,360 square foot palatial estate ‘Belmont’ in 1884 (below).
In preference to William Sharon’s ‘Belmont’, Louise and Frederick Sharon lived in Paris, in New York at their mansion at 323 5th Avenue and at their Menlo Park mansion ‘Sharon Heights’ (below) after its completion in 1906.
In 1909 Florence Louise Breckenridge, Louise’s daughter by her first marriage to John W. Breckenridge, married Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 8th Baronet (elevated to the rank of Baron in 1935). Their wedding presents included a large selection of silver from San Francisco’s famous Shreve & Co.
Florence, then Lady Hesketh, lived in the Hesketh country seat, Easton Neston, one of England’s great country houses. It is currently on the market, see here. The silver descended in the family until recently.
It is interesting to note that after the death of William Sharon in 1885, such was his wealth that many people claimed to be related (one even claimed to be a wife) to get a share of the fortune. One person made a claim 30 years later, saying that records of his birth had been destroyed in the great San Francisco fire of 1906. None of these claims ever succeeded
John Witherspoon Owen Breckenridge
Posted on July 5, 2011 by Royal Rosamond Press
The great grandmother of John Witherspoon Owen Breckenridge, is the Ann Witherspoon, the daughter of Signer, John Witherspoon. His great grandfather, was John Breckenridge, Attorney General of the United States in the Cabinet of President Thomas Jefferson. I lived with Dottie Witherspoon in Boston, and met many Witherspoons in South Carolina who are kin to the actress, Reese Witherspoon.
I have been exchanging e-mails with a member of the Sharon family about revising the Sharon Family reunion at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. I was invited to go to Europe with a member of the Hesketh-Fermor family, who are kin to my niece, Drew Benton, and thus the Prescos. We are all kin to Lloyd Tevis the President of Welles Fargo Bank.
I have put on pause my homework of family relations. I do know some of the California Sharons and I am familiar with the reunion that use to take place in San Francisco, but I have been swamped. I would love to refresh the reunion for our family. I am not familiar with the names on your email yet. I don’t know if you sent email to Philip or had misplaced my name. I will start more family connections with the Sharon clan soon.
Patrick Sharon
Hi Jon- Get ready- much info coming now- please go ASAP to tatler.com- June issue page 102- big article on the new owner of Easton Neston- Leon Max- I’m headed there with James Baring and Bob and Joanne Fermor tomorrow.
Anne
Witherspoon Owen Breckenridge married Louise Tevis Breckenridge Sharon, the daughter of Lloyd Tevis, president of Wells Fargo and one of the richest men in California. When he became president of Wells Fargo, it was an express coach company. When he retired, it was a bank as we know it today. Tevis was assessed by the state of California as having a fortune worth $1,590,000.00 in 1880
John Witherspoon Breckenridge, son of Congressman, Senator, Vice President, Presidential Candidate and Confederate General John C. Breckenridge, c. 1878 and lived in San Rafael, CA. Their marriage ended in divorce and she married secondly Frederick W. Sharon.
Frederick Sharon was the son of Senator William Sharon (right), one of California’s very richest men. Sharon arrived in San Francisco in 1849, first investing in real estate, then also in mining and banking. By 1880, the state of California assessed his personal fortune at $4,470,000.002 and he was the largest single taxpayer in the state. Louise and Frederick were married at Sharon’s 55,360 square foot palatial estate ‘Belmont’ in 1884 (below).
The information found here comes from The Prestons of Smithfield and Greenfield in Virginia by John Frederick Dorman who is one of the preeminent authorities of Virginia genealogy. The descendants of John Preston and Elizabeth Patton are remarkable for the number of outstanding individuals spread over several generations. There are literally dozens of politicians, military men (including generals on both sides of the Civil War), preachers, doctors and authors. This is only a sampling of people who caught my attention. I strongly recommend anyone interested in this family to find The Prestons of Smithfield and Greenfield in Virginia.
http://www.cridermcdowellfamily.com/FamilyTree/ppl/7/0/A5LKTIAFDYXB1F7C07.html
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~swva/preston.htm
Henry Clay (1777-1852)was an American statesman known as “The Great Compromiser.” Clay was a congressman, senator, speaker of the house, and secretary of state. He was a major promoter of the Missouri Compromise in 1820, the compromise tariff of 1833 that ended the Nullification crisis, and the Compromise of 1850, all efforts to balance the rights of free and slave states. He was twice the unsuccessful Whig candidate for president. His wife, Lucretia Hart Clay, was the daughter of Colonel Thomas Hart. They had eleven children — six daughters and five sons.
Lucretia Hart Clay was a daughter of Col. Thomas Hart and Susanna Gray. The Hart family was established in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1690. The only son of a pioneer was Thomas Hart, who married Susanna Rice, and their oldest son was Col. Thomas Hart, who was born in 1730 and accompanied his mother and the other children to North Carolina in 1760. He became prominent in the Colonial and Revolutionary history of North Carolina, being a member of the Provincial Congress at New Bern of August 25, 1774, also attended the Convention of April 4, 1775, and was a delegate to the Assembly at Hillsboro August 21, 1775. He was an officer in the Revolutionary army, and was a member of the famous Transylvania Company. His brother, Captain Nathaniel Hart, was killed by the Indians near Boonesboro, Kentucky in 1782, and it was Susanna, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel, who married Col. Isaac Shelby, first governor of Kentucky. Col. Thomas Hart reared in his home his orphan niece, Ann, who became the wife of Jesse Benton, and her oldest son was the famous Thomas Hart Benton, the distinguished United States senator from Missouri.
http://simpsonhistory.com/notes/lucretiahart.html
William Campbell Preston Breckinridge
Born August 28, 1837 in Baltimore, MD
Son of Robert Jefferson Breckinridge and Ann Sophonisba Preston
Brother of Louisiana Hart Breckinridge, John Breckinridge, Francis Preston Breckinridge, Mary Cabell Breckinridge, Sarah Campbell Breckinridge, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, Marie Lettice Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, Charles Henry Breckinridge, Virginia Hart Breckinridge, Nathaniel Hart Breckinridge and John Robert Breckinridge
Husband of Louise Rucks Scott — married 1893 [location unknown]
Husband of Issa Desha — married September 19, 1861 in Lexington, KY
Husband of Lucretia Hart Clay — married March 17, 1859 in “Mansfield”, Fayette Co., KY
Father of Curry Desha Breckinridge, Ella Breckinridge, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, Lee Clay Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge and Desha Breckinridge
BRECKINRIDGE
Memorial
and
TEVIS/ SHARON ESTATE HISTORY
John Witherspoon Owen Breckinridge, Member of California state assembly 5th District, 1884-85. & Louise (Tevis). the daughter of Lloyd Tevis (1st. Pres. of Wells Fargo Bank).
Louise (Tevis) Breckinridge married (2nd) Frederick William Sharon (son of Senator William Sharon) d.1882 & Maria Malloy.
The life story of Louise Tevis Breckinridge Sharon gives insite into the impact of California gold on global banking and who directed it.
Francis G. Newlands (1848-1917) was a young San Francisco lawyer. Early in his practice he had become an attorney for William Sharon, a senator from Nevada from 1875 to 1882, who made a tremendous fortune revitalizing and managing the rich Nevada Comstock Lode. In 1874 Newlands married Sharon’s daughter. Following her death, in 1882, and William Sharon’s death, in 1885, Newlands became trustee of Sharon’s huge estate, was himself one of the heirs, and managed major land holdings in California and Nevada.18481917, American legislator, b. Natchez, Miss. After practicing law in San Francisco from 1870, he moved (1888) to Nevada. He became well known for his interest in irrigation and reclamation and for his advocacy of free silver. He was (18931903) U.S. Congressman from Nevada and served (190317) as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate. He wrote the Newlands Act of 1913, concerning mediation and conciliation in labor controversies, and the Reclamation Act of 1902. He played a!
n important role in the establishment of the Federal Trade Commission (1914) and in preparing the way for the Transportation Act of 1920
US Senator William Sharon’s daughter by Maria Malloy,
Flora, married Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh of England.
Easton Neston in Northampton
(the estate of the Fermor-Hesketh family)
^ John Cabell Breckinridge, Sr. & Adelaide (Murphy) ^
Aunt: Florence Louise Breckinridge) married Thomas Fermor-Hesketh
^
John Bunny Breckinridge born in 1903 died Tuesday, November 5th, 1996
It looks like Louise Tevis Breckinridge Sharon, was the grand dowager with
control of the purse strings of her mother Susan’s half of the Tevis Estate
and whatever control came to her from her second husbands portion of the
Sharon estate. (California and Nevada community property laws). She would
also have had a great influence on her sister in-law Flora Sharon
Fermor-Hesketh and guided the Fermor-Hesketh marriage of her own daughter
Flora Breckinridge.
Her son John Caball Breckinridge seems to have been part of Victorian
England without a fortune of his own and he didn’t marry one. He and his
marriage were kept in the shadows. I would suspect he had a rough time of it.
The life story of Louise Tevis Breckinridge would give a unique in site
into the impact of California gold on global banking and who directed it.
Well you know all of this already.I will let you know if I come across any
thing about Johns parents.
>From Breckinridge researcher Gloria Hursey
John Cabell “Bunny” Breckinridge descent of the Breckinridges:
1..Alexander Breckenridge & Jane Preston
….2 Robert Breckenridge, Sr. & Letitia Preston
……..3 John Breckenridge & Mary “Polly” Hopkins Cabell
…………4 Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, & Mary Clay Smith, daughter of Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, president of Princeton College. She was a granddaughter of John Witherspoon and a lineal descendant ofJohn Knox: through his heroic daughter, Mrs. Welch, who told King James that she would rather ” kep his head in her lap” than have him submit to the king’s supremacy in religion,”
…………….5 John Cabell Breckinridge (Vice Pres. of US) & Mary Cyrene Burch
………………..6 John Witherspoon Owen Breckinridge & (1st) Louise Tevis
……………………7 Lloyd Tevis Breckinridge
……………………7 John Cabell Breckinridge, Sr. & Adelaide Murphy
……………………….8 John Cabell “Bunny” Breckinridge, Jr.
……………………7 Florence Louis Breckinridge & Thomas Fermor-Hesketh
……………………….8 Thomas Fermor-Hesketh
……………………….8 Frederick “Freddie” Fermor-Hesketh & Christian Mary McEwan
……………………….8 Florence Fermor-Hesketh & (1) ? Revelstoke, (2) Derick/Arthur Lawson
……………………….8 John Fermor-Hesketh & (1) Patricia ?, (2)Joan Isabel Reveley (Lorelei).
……………………….8 Louise Fermor-Hesketh & Edmond Villiers Minshull Stockdale
………………..6 John Witherspoon Owen Breckinridge & (2nd) Harriet Dudley
……………………7 Elizabeth Lee Breckinridge & Joseph I. Thomas
……………………….8 Breckenridge Thomas
John Cabell “Bunny” Breckinridge descent of the Tevis:
1..Robert Tevis & Martha Crow/Crowe
….2 Samuel Tevis & Sarah Jane Greathouse
……..3 Lloyd Tevis & Susan Saunders
…………4 Louise Tevis & (1st) John Witherspoon Owen Breckinridge
…………….5 Lloyd Tevis Breckinridge
…………….5 John Cabell Breckinridge, Sr. & Adelaide Murphy
………………..6 John Cabell “Bunny” Breckinridge, Jr.
…………….5 Florence Louise Breckinridge & Thomas Fermor-Hesketh
……………….6 Thomas Fermor-Hesketh
……………….6 Frederick “Freddie” Fermor-Hesketh & Christian Mary
McEwan
……………….6 Florence Fermor-Hesketh & (1) ? Revelstoke, (2)
Derick/Arthur Lawson
……………….6 John Fermor-Hesketh & (1) Patricia ?, (2) Joan Isabel Reveley (Lorelei)
……………….6 Louise Fermor-Hesketh & Edmond Villiers Minshull
Stockdale
…………4 Louise Tevis & (2nd) Frederick William Sharon (son of Senator
William Sharon)
…………….5 Henry William Tevis Sharon (said to have died young)
Sharon descent:
1..William Sharon, Sr. & Susanna Kirk
….2 Senator William Sharon, Jr. & Maria Malloy
……..3 Clara Adelaide Sharon & Francis Griffith Newlands
……..3 Florence Sharon & Thomas George Fermor-Hesketh
…………4 Thomas Fermor-Hesketh & Florence Louise Breckinridge
(Florence is the daughter of John Witherspoon Owen
Breckinridge & 1st. spouse, Louise Tevis)
……..3 Frederick William Sharon & Louise Tevis
(Louise (Tevis) Sharon is the 1st spouse of John Witherspoon Owen
Breckinridge)
…………4 Henry William Tevis Sharon (said to have died young)
Gloria
Ghursey2@aol.com
Sharon Estate Company, 74:385, 392
Sharon, Fred, 58:245
Sharon, Mrs. Frederick W., 25:238
OBITUARY — John `Bunny’ Breckinridge
“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”
Its unfortunate the obituary above was written by sombody who did not know him. I remember him only as kind, intelligent and generous.
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BRECKINRIDGE, John, (brother of James Breckinridge, grandfather of John Cabell Breckinridge and William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, great-grandfather of Clifton Rodes Breckinridge, great-great-grandfather of John Bayne Breckinridge, cousin of John Brown, James Brown, and Francis Preston), a Senator from Kentucky; born near Staunton, Augusta County, Va., December 2, 1760; educated at Augusta Academy, near Staunton (now Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.), and at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Va.; elected a member of the house of burgesses in 1780 when nineteen years of age, but being under age was not allowed to take his seat until elected the third time; served as subaltern in the Virginia Militia during the Revolutionary War; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1785 and commenced practice in Charlottesville, Va.; elected as a Democrat to the Third Congress, but resigned in 1792 before the commencement of the congressional term; moved to Kentucky in 1793 and resumed the practice of law in Lexington; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1794; appointed attorney general of Kentucky in 1795 and served until November 30, 1797, when he resigned; member, State house of representatives 1798-1800, serving as speaker in 1799 and 1800; member of the State constitutional convention in 1799; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1801, until August 7, 1805, when he resigned to accept the position of Attorney General of the United States in the Cabinet of President Thomas Jefferson; served in this capacity until his death at ‘Cabell’s Dale,’ near Lexington, Ky., December 14, 1806; interment in Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Ky.
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