Yuba County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter 19 Who Remembers? 1924 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 4, 2012, 6:21 pm Book Title: History Of Yuba And Sutter Counties CHAPTER XIX WHO REMEMBERS? When Marysville's jail was a small one-story adobe structure at the foot of D Street? When there was no street-railway connection between Marysville and Yuba City, and the mode of conveyance was horse-drawn busses, the drivers of which announced the time of departure by blowing a fish-horn, and were so accommodating that they would, by appointment, stop for you in front of your home, or at some designated shopping place, and toot the horn to summon you to get aboard? When "the Slough" required foot-bridges on Fifth Street, F to G; E Street, Eighth to Tenth; and Eighth Street, E to F; and how those bridges were trysting places for you and your girl on fair evenings? When the faithful old colored man, named Watkins, announced auction sales from the principal corners in the business and residence sections by loudly and solemnly ringing a huge hand-bell, following with "Hear ye! hear ye!" and then as solemnly chanting the time and location of the auction, the auctioneer's name, and the nature of the goods to go "under the hammer," with an emphatic assurance that the time of opportunity had arrived for those who sought bargains? When Marysville had her "Father Wie Gehts" (William Landis), so named for his persistency in greeting his friends in German? He invariably appeared in a soft shirt, collar cut low, and roomy pantaloons tucked away in great, heavy boots. Solidly built, he carried a cane which was allowed to strike the sidewalk with a rhythm as he jogged along. When he did not carry a cane it was his trusty shotgun that occupied his hands. For his exercise, the procuring of which seemed to be his principal occupation, he walked the levees about the city, or went far into the country to hunt wild game. He knew where the birds abounded, and always came back with a well-filled bag. When the vote on the first set of levee commissioners was canvassed, it was found that "Father Wie Gehts" had been chosen as one of three to serve the city. He declined the office and refused to qualify. He didn't have the time. The "call of the wild" for him. When the city had another character — -"Blind Chandon," who, though totally deprived of sight, made his way about the streets aided by his cane? He knew every nook and cranny of the town, and never failed to recognize the voice of a greeting friend, or acquaintance. In a horse trade (he followed farming north of the city on the "Chandon Ranch") he was not to be defrauded. If any one lost out on the deal, it was the other fellow. Among Chandon's friends and admirers was J. "Riley" Garrett, founder of the J. R. Garrett Company of the present day. Garrett would drop a business deal any time to perpetrate a joke. Noting that Jacob Tomb, a friend of both Chandon and Garrett, was minus a button from his pantaloons front, Garrett called Chandon and told him of Tomb's whereabouts and of the missing button. Chandon made his way at once to Tomb's position on the main corner of the city and, before a crowd of Tomb's friends, derided him for his negligence in dress. Ever after that it was difficult to convince Tomb that Chandon did not have at least a partial use of his eyes. When, for many years, a wooden Indian was the sign for a Marysville cigar store? This wooden Indian is now to be seen on Powell Street in San Francisco, engaged in the same pursuit. During his stay in Marysville he was the property of M. and M. A. Marcuse, who conducted a cigar store on the "Western House corner." When Cortez Square was surrounded with a low brick wall, surmounted by a picket fence, and had turnstiles at its corners as entrances and exits? When this same square was used as the show grounds for circuses, and for amateur baseball and old-style football games? When this same square, now a beautiful park, contained, in its center, a building where State fairs were held? When, sometimes, the vacant lot upon which now stands the Peffer planing mill and the two dwellings to the north, now owned by the Peffer heirs, was used for smaller circuses and small medicine shows? When St. Joseph's Boys' School, at Seventh and C Streets, was a one-story frame structure and had on both sides sidewalks desirable for games of marbles, purg and mumbly-peg? When the present site of the Peri Building on D Street was occupied by the leading livery stable, with a board walk in front, over which the clatter of the horses' hoofs, leaving and entering, could be heard for blocks? When the present sites of the C. C. Hampton and Samuel Ewell residences on Sixth Street, D and Oak, were occupied as a Christian Brothers' school, and when the lot upon which now stands the Dr. J. L. Sullivan home, and lots to the north thereof, were occupied by Miss Poston's private school? When the Southern Pacific passenger depot was located in a one-story brick building at the southwest corner of Sixth and A Streets, where the Southern Pacific Park now is, and how "Billy" Ward was "mine host" to the hungry passengers on a "hurry up" schedule, said passengers being summoned to the table by a bell rung by "Chub" Casey, as soon as the trains came to a stop? When there were but two passenger trains into Marysville each day — one from the north and one from the south — and the hotel busses met each with drivers who so strenuously fought for the alighting passengers that the police frequently had to take a hand? When Owen Cunningham, who signed "R. O. C," was both freight platform boss and baggage master for the Southern Pacific, and how we kids had to "look out" that he didn't catch us digging into the sacks of nuts and dried fruits left with him for consignment? When the ice for city consumption arrived each Friday evening from Boca or Truckee in a box car dripping wet: how that dripping car was a signal for the kids to assemble underneath it while it was being unloaded, and there fight for the pieces that broke from the blocks; and how the huskiest lad always got enough of the broken pieces to turn into pocket money at the nearest saloon? "When the ponds outside the Browns Valley grade were the favorite swimming pools, where many a kid learned the art, and in the vicinity of which were vineyards and orchards where the boys always could get their fill of the fruit any day in fruit season? When "Cass' Point," a projection into Ellis Lake about at Ninth and D Streets, was "a good place to swim"; and when the "Chinese Rafts" on Feather River, west of the county hospital, proved a magnet for the boys bent on swimming on a warm day? When the lot upon which the police station and city prison now stand was occupied by a residence owned by a man named Carr, in front of which images of two large dogs were kept; and how Carr, when he removed to San Francisco, took the dogs with him and planted them in front of a home which he built in the metropolis? When "old man Hatch" was janitor of the B Street grammar school, and how, for years, he had as a faithful companion a brown dog which splendidly matched his complexion, and for which all the pupils always evinced the greatest respect? T. J. (Tom) Powers, who kept a saloon and billiard parlor on Second Street, opposite the Western Hotel, and who daily displayed the flag of the United States, or of some other country, as a reminder of some nation's holiday, or the anniversary of some great battle, or other event of the past? Harry Adkins, for years and years pressman in the office of the Marysville Appeal, and Frank and Ed Cunningham, who were hand-set printers on that paper for forty years? George Harris ("Six-shooter George"), watchman and stage hand at the old Marysville Theater for most of his life? John Flattery, who kept a candy and notion stand in the Odd Fellows Building, and who, seated in his one-hoss shay, attended every funeral, always bringing up the rear? When Walter E. Langdon, present police judge of Marysville, was delivery clerk for "Jim" Rich, grocer of Wheatland; and how he sought to reform by becoming a news-gatherer for a Marysville paper, and then advanced along the line of reformation by becoming secretary for Marysville Lodge of Elks and finally a police court magistrate? Maurice J. Collis, son of Erin, who became the star reporter on the Marysville Appeal, holding the position many years, until his death? When the outlet for teams and wagons from Marysville to the east was Simpson's Lane, an extension of Seventh Street at Yuba, and the bridge that crossed the river in that lane, before the crossing was moved to its location at the foot of E Street? "Tennessee Bill" (William Goforth), who made frequent visits to both Yuba City and Marysville, and raised his monstrous fog-horn voice to the four points of the compass in support of his favored political candidate, and generally landed in jail for disturbing the peace? The annual picnic of St Joseph's Society and the trip by river steamer down Feather River to Hock Farm, where the lads and lassies danced their fill and the families of the two counties renewed friendships around the lunches spread upon the grass, and where there were always several couples to dance Irish jigs and Scotch hornpipes? When Fifth Street, in the grain season, presented a long line of wagons carrying Sutter County wheat and barley to the warehouses of the Buckeye Mills Company for storage? When A. Peri, founder of the Peri Dancing Academy in the Peri Building on D Street, Third and Fourth, thought three or "four months in the summer season was the limit for selling ice cream and ice cream sodas, and closed that branch of his business for the remaining months of the year? When "Uncle Obe" Sawtelle was collector of tolls on the D Street bridge, and how deftly he manipulated the swinging gates on the Marysville end of the bridge at the approach of a runaway team, thus avoiding damage to the bridge and, at the same time, protecting rigs and drivers who were already on the structure? When "Uncle Obe" Sawteile issued a pronunciamento that white cows need not pay toll to cross the bridge, and then explained that the owners of course would pay, and not the cows? The old town pump and the watering-trough that stood so many years at the corner of Bridge and Second Streets in Yuba City; and "Uncle Cale" Wilcoxon, who, with others, conducted the store on this corner, where old cronies gathered to enjoy "Uncle Cale's" jokes and sallies? When the boys switched the needle on "Uncle Cale" in the box that looked so tempting as a seat to the weary? When Yuba City's water-works comprised a 5000-gallon tank supported by rough beams, and located on a lot on Second Street next to Jim Orr's blacksmith shop? The history of that early landmark of Marysville, the huge iron ball standing at the curb, at the intersection of Sixth and Elm Streets? This ball was shipped from San Francisco in the early fifties by way of Marysville, consigned to the mines. It was part of an arrastre to be used in crushing gold ore. By the time it reached Marysville it was found to be damaged and useless for the purpose for which it was intended. The teamsters decided not to haul it further, and left if near its present location, in the stable from which they started. The ball was shifted about, and finally was taken charge of by the city authorities, who later substituted it for a corner post. The year Jacob Guenther had the mail route between the railroad depot and the Marysville post-office, and the spirited pony he drove attached to his spring wagon, and how every other vehicle had to make way for "Jake" when, in his haste, he turned the corner on two wheels? Harry Keetly, express driver for Wells, Fargo & Company in Marysville. who died after years spent in the company's service in the business and residence districts? Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF YUBA and SUTTER COUNTIES CALIFORNIA WITH Biographical Sketches OF The Leading Men and Women of the Counties Who Have Been Identified with Their Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present HISTORY BY PETER J. DELAY ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 1924 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/yuba/history/1924/historyo/chapter1333gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 13.0 Kb