The "Influenza Plot" at Mountain View Cemetery; Notable flu victims

The "Influenza Plot" at Mountain View Cemetery (photo: Michael Colbruno)

One of the deadliest influenza pandemics in history lasted from June 1918 to December 1920.  Estimates vary widely as to the actual number of deaths, with estimates ranging from 20-100 million people killed. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death in the 14th century. If 50 million people died, it meant that 3% of the world's population was wiped out.

The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate of 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%.

The flu dominated headlines on October 28, 1918 with conflicting messages, but showing 161 deaths.

Research from frozen tissue samples has concluded that the virus killed through a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system), which perhaps explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its victims. The strong immune system reactions of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths.

Even President Woodrow Wilson suffered from the flu in early 1919 while negotiating the crucial treaty of Versailles to end the World War. Those who were lucky enough to avoid infection had to deal with the public health ordinances to restrain the spread of the disease. The public health departments distributed gauze masks to be worn in public. Stores could not hold sales and funerals were limited to fifteen minutes.

Warren Everett Greer (L), one of Oakland's numerous flu victims

Some towns required a signed certificate to enter and railroads would not accept passengers without them. Those who ignored the flu ordinances had to pay steep fines, which were enforced by police. Bodies pilled up and before long there was a shortage of coffins, morticians and even gravediggers.

In Oakland and San Francisco, the pandemic lasted from about September 1918 to the summer of 1919. However, many people lingered for months before dying. Southern California was hit much harder than Northern California, but over 100,000 masks were still distributed by health officials in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the masks had little to no impact in preventing the spread of the disease. Oakland saw approximately 1,400 deaths out of just over 200,000 residents.

Obituaries from the Oakland Tribune

Many of the burials were placed in Plot 53, which is just north of the Tower Chapel and outdoor garden mausoleum.  If you take a walk through the plot, you'll notice that many of the burials occurred between 1918-1920.

The Oakland Municipal Auditorium was uses as a temporary hospital withvolunteer nurses from the American Red Cross.
(Photo from Oakland Public Library History Room) 

Notable influenza victims buried at Mountain View Cemetery 

Charles James Freeborn

One of the victims of the flu pandemic was Charles James Freeborn, a graduate of Yale University in 1899, where he was a member of the St. Elmo Society. He wasn't buried in the "Influenza Plot," but in his family mausoleum up the hill.

Freeborn was one of the earliest Yale men to volunteer for active service in World War I. He was a Captain in the United States Army, and a recipient of the Croix de Guerre from the French for his service. After the War ended, four years of active service left him too weak to recover from the flu and on February 13, 1919 he died from complications from pneumonia. You can read more about him HERE in one of our previous posts.

PASSIFLORA LIGULARIS JUSS (Passion Flower)

Richard M. Stadden (1856-1918) — Stadden was a civil engineer and contractor who worked on railways and harbor projects in the United States and Mexico. He intermittently served as a U.S. representative in Manzanillo, Mexico as both Vice Consul and Consul between 1885 and 1918. In 1914, he was temporarily ordered to leave Mexico after mobs burned the American flag in response to U.S. troops landing in Vera Cruz, Mexico.

He may best be remembered for introducing the Mexican Passion Flower (Passiflora ligularis juss) to the United States in 1911.

He married Hermelinda Soto, a native of Colima, Mexico.

Captain William Shorey

William T. Shorey (1859–1919) was a late 19th Century American whaling ship captain known to his crew as the Black Ahab. He was born in Barbados and spent his life at sea. He became the only black captain operating on the west coast of the United States in the late-1880s and 1890s. His whaling voyages were based out of San Francisco on the whaling bark John and Winthrop. He retired from whaling in 1908 and lived in Oakland until his death from the Spanish flu pandemic in 1919. There is a street name after him in Oakland.

Mt. Wilson in Colorado

A.D. Wilson in 1874 (far right)

A.D. (Allen David) Wilson (1844-1920) enlisted with the Geological Survey of California in 1867.  In July 1868, he joined Clarence King for his Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel and stayed with him through 1872. Wilson then joined Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden and between 1873 and 1878, he triangulated across western Colorado, western Wyoming, and eastern Idaho.

In 1879, Hayden's Survey was merged with others to form the U.S. Geological Survey. Clarence King named Wilson the chief topographer of the USGS.

During the 1890s, Wilson relocated to Oakland, California where he and other civic leaders organized the Athenian Bank (later renamed the Security Bank and Trust of Oakland). In 1918, the bank was absorbed by the Bank of Italy and soon thereafter became the Bank of America. He died of influenza on February 21, 1920 in Oakland.

Newspaper ads showed "cures" for the flu from milk, herbs and chiropractic work

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Clara Bedell a.k.a. “Diamond Carrie” – 19th Century Madame (1854-1891)

Gravestone of Clara Bedell & family

San Francisco around the time "Diamond Carrie" ran her business

 

PLOT 14B

Clara Bedell was a well-known madame in San Francisco in the latter part of the 19^th century. She went by the name Carrie McLay, but was best known as “Diamond Carrie.” Her nickname apparently came from her penchant for owning beautiful jewels, especially diamonds.

Clara Bedell was a native of  Silvercreek Mills, Iowa and was born into a family of farmers. It’s unclear exactly when her family arrived in California, but records show that she ran her business for at least ten years and the family appears in the 1880 city directory.

Diamond Carrie’s “house of ill-repute” was located at the current location of the Prada store near Union Square on Post Street in downtown San Francisco. She would have been one of highest paid women in San Francisco, as well as one with freedoms that most other women didn’t have. Those would include the right to own property, use of birth control, ability to have sex freely and the right to mix with other races. Twenty years after her death, the average prostitute in the West made around $50 per week, more than double what the average male skilled laborer made and triple what the average woman earned. Newspaper accounts describe her as a woman with “considerable executive ability.”

Shortly before her death she found the body of a 29-year-old man named Beauregard McMullin of Fresno, who was the son of a well-known Northern California family. A month later in the same building, “Diamond Carrie” was found dead in her room by her housekeeper. Apparently, unable to sleep, she mixed opium with some wine and overdosed. Witnesses say that she had been drinking champagne all day.

Her estate was valued at $25,000, a substantial sum for time, especially for a woman. Her estate included her property and usual belongings, as well as a substantial amount of her beloved jewelry. She gave many of her belonging to family, as well as gifts to her  “China boys.”

Three years after her death she was in the news again when her name appeared as the benefiary of a $10,000 life insurance policy from a judge named R.S. Mesick.

Both Bedell’s will and the judge’s insurance policy were contested.

John Muir Tour preview from Dr. Ron Bachman

JOHN MUIR

Dr. Ron Bachman discusses his upcoming tour about John Muir. The tour is free to public on Saturday, January 28th at 8 am. Located at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, 5000 Piedmont Avenue. He will be joined by docent Sarah Calhoun.

George Perkins (1839-1923) - California Governor; Long-serving Senator

Governor George Perkins

George Perkins early years were spent working on the family farm, which he did not enjoy. His dream was to become a captain of a ship. At age 13, he applied for a position as a cabin-boy, but he was considered too young. Not to be deterred, George hid on the ship and was not discovered until the ship set sail. He was set to work as one of the cabin-boys. He arrived in San Francisco when he was 16. Perkins tried his luck at mining for several months, but was unsuccessful. He moved to a mining camp in Ophir where he drove a mule train and worked as a porter in a store. Perkins eventually became a clerk at the store and earned a salary of $60 a month. When business had slowed, Perkins bought the store. By the age of 20, Perkins grossed about $500, 000 annually through his trade in merchandise, produce and provisions.

Grave of George Perkins (photo by Michael Colbruno)

Perkins was elected to serve as a term as a state Senator in 1869 and was re-elected in 1871. This was the turning point in Perkins’ political career as well as in his business career. While Perkins was in the Senate he met Captain Manor Goodall. In 1872, Perkins and Goodall formed the Goodall, Nelson and Perkins Steamship Company, which was renamed the Pacific Coast Steam Navigation Company. It was a very successful company. In 1873, Perkins was elected to fill the unexpired term of Senator Boucher, who passed away in late 1872.

In 1875, Perkins moved to San Francisco, leaving his brother to run the store. In addition to his store, Perkins also owned sheep and cattle ranches, was involved in mining and lumber interests. He was also a member of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, president of Arctic Oil Works as well as president of Starr and Company. He helped establish Bank of Butte County, and was a director for the California State Bank in Sacramento and First National Bank of San Francisco. 

At the Republican State Convention of 1879, Perkins was selected as his party’s nomination for governor. His campaign for governor was successful garnering him 20,000 votes over the next closest candidate. Perkins was the first governor to work under the new state constitution. During his tenure, the State Normal School opened (which later became UCLA), and the University of Southern California was established. Perkins also pardoned numerous prisoners, personally interviewing each prisoner. 

After his term as governor, Perkins returned to his business interests. However, in 1888, he was appointed as one of the directors of the deaf, dumb and blind asylum at Berkeley and was reappointed in 1891. In 1889, Perkins was appointed a trustee of the state mining bureau. 

In 1893, Governor Markham appointed Perkins to fill out the unexpired term of U.S. Senator Leland Stanford, who had passed away. Perkins was re-elected to the U.S. Senate three more times. He retired from the Senate in 1915 and returned to Oakland. He was the third-longest serving senator in California history, after Hiram Johnson and Alan Cranston, serving 22 years.

George Pardee (July 25, 1857-September 1, 1941) - California Governor

Governor George Pardee

The son of a prominent physician and politician (who served as Mayor of Oakland, State Senator and State Assemblyman), George Pardee was destined to follow in his father's footsteps. He was born in San Francisco in 1857 and raised in the family home in Oakland.


Pardee attended the University of California where he received a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1879 and a Master of Arts in 1881. He attended the Cooper Medical College for two years and he received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Leipzig, Germany in 1885. Pardee joined his father’s medical practice, which specialized in diseases of the eye and ear.

Pardee Grave in Plot 1; Pardee home in Oakland

Pardee’s political career began when he was appointed to serve on Oakland’s Board of Health in 1889. In 1891, he was elected to Oakland’s City Council and in 1893 was elected Mayor for a two-year term. He served as California Governor from 1903 -1907 and became known as "The Earthquake Governor," since he oversaw the aftermath of the Great Earthquake of 1906. Pardee sought to take command of the situation himself, traveling to his native Oakland in the later afternoon to oversee the state response to the disaster. Making his headquarters in Oakland Mayor Frank K. Mott's office, Pardee worked twenty-hour days during the disaster, signing travel permission papers, coordinating state and federal relief funds and trains, and remaining in contact with the outside world through Oakland's undamaged telegraph lines. In addition, Pardee also visited other afflicted cities, such as San Jose and Santa Rosa, to tour and coordinate their own disaster responses.

Pardee was the second native-born Californian to assume the governorship, after fellow Mountain View Cemetery denizen Romualdo Pacheco, and the first governor born in California post-statehood.

His exposure to innovative environmental conservation efforts in Germany heavily influenced his political decisions; as Governor, he was a strong supporter of conservation measures. After leaving office he was president of the East Bay Municipal Utilities district. The Pardee Dam, near Jackson, is named after him.

Thomas Hill (1829 - 1908) - Famous Painter

Thomas Hill

Plot 36, Lot 261

Thomas Hill was a native of Birmingham, England and arrived in Massachusetts with his family at the age of fifteen.  The son of a poor tailor,  Thomas worked briefly in a cotton factory before he was apprenticed to a carriage painter.  In 1847 he joined an interior decoration firm in Boston and by 1851 he had  married and was the father of the first of his nine children.

His interest turned to painting and he enrolled in evening art classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1853.  The next year he started his career as a landscape painter by painting  several scenes in the White Mountains, but it was not until 1861 when he settled in San Francisco, where he advertised as a portrait painter, that he was able to devote significant time to his painting.  By 1864 he was exhibiting scenes he had painted in Napa and the Sierra, and in 1865 he made what may have been his first visit to Yosemite, the site that was to become the subject of many of his most famous paintings.

Thomas Hill's Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite

Despite the enthusiastic reception his Yosemite paintings received, Hill left in 1866 for the east  coast and then Paris.  In Paris he studied with Paul Meyerheim before he returned to the United States in 1867, settled in Boston where he produced the first of his monumental views of Yosemite Valley.  The two 6’ x 10’ paintings he did of Yosemite were both purchased by Californians - Charles and Edwin B. Crocker.  (Edwin B. Crocker, brother of Charles, was appointed to the state supreme court by Governor Leland Stanford in the 1860’s).  Hill found the art market in the east to be far from vigorous, and this, combined with his rather poor health, provided the impetus for his permanent return to California in 1872.

Hill was a leader in the growing art community in Northern California, active in the San Francisco Art Association and the Bohemian Club.  His “oil sketches,” usually 16”x 20” paintings, are a significant number of his remaining works.  These fully-realized compositions were often brought back to his studio to use as reference as he created his monumental works.  The scenes of  his oil sketches ranged from the White Mountains and Newport, Rhode Island to Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and the Pacific Northwest, in addition to Yosemite.

Thomas Hill's The Last Spike

In a major departure from pure landscapes, Hill painted a famous, fanciful commemoration of “The Driving of the Last Spike,” ostensibly on  commission from Leland Stanford.  Hill understood Stanford to say he would pay him $50,000, but after four years’ work, Stanford refused to buy it, and even denied ordering it. He stated his objection to the inclusion of many railroad officials in the painting when they had not actually been present at the ceremony.

Much of the above material was extracted from “Direct From Nature, The Oil Sketches of Thomas Hill” by   Janice Driesbach in the 1997 Supplement of California History, published by  the California Historical Society.

Isaiah West Taber (1830-1912) - Pioneer California Photographer

Taber's plot is the enclosed grassy area, not the mausoleum

Plot 14B, Lot 116

After spending some of his teenage years on whaling ships at sea, Isaiah West Taber, a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, arrived in California in 1850 hoping to find gold.  Like most of his fellow gold-seekers, he didn’t find his fortune in the hills, and returned home in 1854.  In New Bedford he tried his hand at dentistry, but lost interest and turned to photography, and in 1856 he settled in Syracuse, New York where he established a portrait business.

In 1864 he returned to California where he worked for San Francisco photographers William Herman Rulofson and Henry Bradley, and around 1871, went out on his own.  In 1878 he established a large gallery at 8 Montgomery Street, and in 1893 moved to 121 Post Street.  According to the introduction to “Taber: A Photographic Legacy” (Windgate Press, 2003), “Portraiture established his reputation and created an outlet for taking and acquiring landscape views and experimenting with different forms of photography.”  Photographers of that period made their living by taking portraits.

Taber photograph of a boy from his Montgomery St. studio

 In the annals of photography, Taber ranks as one of California’s and the West’s premier pioneer photographers, and perhaps no other early California photographer achieved such fame during hislifetime. 

Taber photographed Ulysses S. Grant and six other U.S. presidents, the royal family of Hawaii, Queen Victoria (he was invited to photograph her Diamond Jubilee in 1897), and Edward VII.  His success in London led him to open a studio there.  In San Francisco Taber was commissioned to photograph the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition.  His albums remain a fine documentary of that major event.

Taber's famous photo of Yosemite

In 1876 he acquired Carleton E. Watkins’ vast collection of negatives (Watkins had suffered economic reverses) and published some of Watkins’ views under his own name, for which he was criticized.

One of the disastrous losses incurred curing the 1906 earthquake and fire was the destruction of the entire collection of Taber’s glass negatives….80 tons of portrait negatives and 12 tons of view negatives were consumed.  Fortunately, Taber had published many popular albums, insuring that his work would remain available, but the earthquake signaled the end of his career.

Art Lym (Lin Fuyuan 林福元) 1890-1962 - First Chinese Aviator

Art Lym

Garden Mausoleum

Art Lym, was a pilot who trained under the Wright brothers* and helped pioneer aviation in China. According to the July 15, 1913 issue of the Washington Post, he was China’s first aviator. He later headed the Chinese Air Force.

Lym was born in San Francisco on December 27, 1890. After the 1906 earthquake he moved to across the Bay to Oakland with his sister and her husband. He began his career in the newspaper business, writing and managing the Chinese World (Sai Gai Yat Po) newspaper.

In 1913 Lym was sent to the Curtiss Aviation School in San Diego financed by wealthy Chinatown benefactors. He earned his license with the Aero Club of America becoming one of the first two Chinese-Americans to obtain a license. Concern for his own safety led Lym to install a Sperry gyroscope stabilizer, which the U.S. Navy subsequently adopted.

Lym accepted a commission from Chinese President Yuan Shu-kai and set off to China. He became the director of the Pukou Flight School where he gave demonstrations in bomb-dropping and air scouting. Lin’s appointment was due as much to his political affiliations with the Baohuanghui as it did with his skill as a pilot. Lym would later go on to become director of the Aviation Board of the Ministry of War.

With his childhood friend Tom Gunn he organized the Canton Air Corps and launched an aerial assault on bandit strongholds on Hainan Island, recapturing the area for Guangdong. In 1920 he led the first ever aerial bombing raid on the City of Canton, targeting the Kwangsi invaders.

* Needs secondary attribution

George Dornin (1830-1907) Daguerreotypist; Author; Successful Insurance Man

Dornin Gravesite (Photo by Michael Colbruno)

PLOT 33

George Dornin was one of the first successful daguerreotypists in California, as well as a successful insurance executive. He also wrote an account for his children entitled “Thirty Year Ago,” which was such a great description of the 49er days that it was later published in book form.

Dornin was born in New York City on December 30, 1830 and beginning at the age of 13 worked as a clerk on Wall Street. In January 1849, after hearing endless cries of “Ho, for California!,” he paid $135 for a ticket on the Panama and sailed for the gold fields of a distant California. The trip was difficult and he became homesick, writing that he cried “often and bitterly” over a daguerreotype of his mother.

He arrived penniless in San Francisco and slept aboard the Panama while looking for work. One of his jobs was painting memorial markers for Yerba Buena Cemetery (at the site of the new City Hall). This led to him becoming a sign painter and carpenter, but the ever enterprising Dornin also became a restaurateur and retail/wholesale grocer.  His accounts of his time in San Francisco also includes a vivid description of the Vigilance Committee of 1851, of which he was not a member, but supportive of their cause.

Nevada City daguerreotype by George Dornin

In 1852, he moved to Nevada City arriving via boat and stage coach.  Upon arriving in the gold fields he worked a number of odd jobs, including launderer, sign painter, baker and wallpaper hanger. That same year, he also took one of the first known pictures of Nevada City. He settled down for 18 years and worked as a merchant in Nevada City and San Juan, where he also got married and raised his children

In 1856, he helped form a Rocky Mountain Club, a Republican club set up during the Presidential campaign of John C. Fremont. The club was jeered with taunts of “Negro Worshipper” and “Black Republicans” because of their opposition to slavery.  In the 1860s, Dornin served four years in the State Legislature while simultaneously working as an express agent, telegraph operator, bookkeeper and stage line operator.

In 1867, he began work as an insurance agent, at which he became highly successful. By 1873, he had already become a vice-president at Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company. A 1906 article in the Oakland Tribune announced the resignation of Dornin from the National Fire Insurance Company when he disagreed with the company’s method of discounting claims from the 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco.

Dornin’s grandson was John D. Eldredge, who had a fairly successful career as a supporting actor on television and on stage.

George Dornin’s obituary aptly described him as “the oldest insurance man in the State, and a pioneer of ’49.”

[Original bio by Michael Colbruno, based on "Thirty Years Ago" and Oakland Tribune articles]

Grant D. Miller (1863-1945) - Mortuary owner; County Coroner; EBMUD Founder

Grant D. Miller (Photo of crypt by Michael Colbruno)

MAIN MAUSOLEUM, SEC. 9, Tier 1, Crypt 420

Grant D. Miller was a well-known undertaker in Oakland, where a funeral home still bears his name. He was elected the Alameda County Coroner in 1914,  narrowly defeating incumbent Dr. Charles Tisdale. Miller served for 24 years until his voluntary retirement.  

He was born in Amador County, California on November 24, 1863 to David and Julia (Hinkson) Miller.  In 1879, he moved to San Francisco, where he attended the Pacific Business College. After graduating, he was hired as clerk by Wells Fargo where he worked for two years. He moved to Mariposa, California in 1882 and worked as the secretary of the Compromise Mining Company for two years, at which time he rejoined his father in worked on the family farm.

Just before the turn of the 20th century he arrived in Oakland and opened his funeral home.  Besides his service as the Alameda County Coroner, Miller was instrumental in founding the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EMBUD) in 1923 and served on its board until 1943, when he resigned because of poor health. He was also a founder of the Oakland Community Chest and the Eastbay Safety Council. 

He requested a simple funeral and that his pallbearers were all past and present employees of his mortuary. 

The original mortuary was located at 2372 East 14th Street and remained there until 1978. It is currently called the Grant Miller-John Cox Mortuary and is located at 2850 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. 

 Above is a picture of the current mortuary as it appeared when it was built 1896 and  as it appeared in 2009. The building was redesigned in 1931 by architects Chester Miller and Carl Warnecke. Note the four windows that can be seen in both pictures.