John Norton Pomeroy - Eminent Legal Scholar

[Photo by Michael Colbruno]

Plot 15

Born in Rochester, New York, in 1828, John Norton Pomeroy graduated from Hamilton College in 1847. After graduating, Pomeroy taught school for a short period of time in Lebanon, Ohio, and then at the Academy in Rochester, New York. He studied law in Cincinnati with Senator Thomas Corwin and in Rochester with Judge Henry R. Selden. Pomeroy was admitted to the Bar of New York in 1851.

After practicing law for a number of years he returned to teaching, during which time he wrote his first book, Introduction to Municipal Law. In 1864 he accepted the chair of Professor of Law at the University of the City of New York (now New York University), and later became the dean of the legal faculty. In 1865 he received an honorary LL.D. from his alma mater, Hamilton College. In 1871 he returned to the practice of law in Rochester, and continued his writing.

In 1878 he accepted the position of Professor of Municipal Law at Hastings College of the Law and was responsible for teaching most, if not all, of the students who studied at the college during its first four years. During this time Professor Pomeroy not only wrote a significant treatise on equity jurisprudence, he edited (with one of his sons) the West Coast Reporter, and contributed a number of essays and book reviews to this publication.

Though primarily a teacher and a scholar, Professor Pomeroy was counsel in three significant California cases: San Mateo County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. (C.C.D. Cal. 1882), Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. (C.C.D. Cal 1883), and Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Co. (C.C.D. Cal 1883) and (C.C.D. Cal. 1884).

[Biography from the Univ. of California, Hastings Law School website]

His tombstone reads: "Erected to his memory by his students of the Hastings College of the Law"

Alexis "A.W." Von Schmidt - "Water-stealer of the century"

[Photo of von Schmidt grave by Michael Colbruno; von Schmidt Dredger photo from San Francisco Library photo archives]

The Prussian-born Alexis “A.W.” Von Schmidt arrived in San Francisco in the Gold Rush year of 1849, but didn’t partake in mining endeavors. A civil engineer by training, Von Schmidt worked as a surveyor, mapping public lands and Spanish land grants throughout the state and became a controversial figure in the California and Nevada’s water wars.

Although he was a very successful businessman in the dredging and water business, Von Schmidt is best known to history for three endeavors, none of which was completely successful.

In 1872 and 1873, von Schmidt was hired to mark the state line between Nevada and California. His survey erred slightly creating a crooked boundary that had to be corrected. There is a California State Historical marker commemorating his efforts on the border.

He will also be remembered as the man who devised a scheme to divert water from pristine Lake Tahoe, through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, to San Francisco. Luckily, for future generations of people who have enjoyed the beautiful waters of Lake Tahoe, Nevada won this water war.

His third semi-failure occurred in 1873, when Von Schmidt was hired to find the perfect location for an astronomical observatory, funded by James Lick who made his fortune in real estate and the Gold Rush. Von Schmidt determined that the best location was on Dollar Point east of Tahoe City, but ultimately it was built in San Jose. In the case, hindsight may have proved the confident Von Schmidt correct.

Although he may be remembered for his grand failures, Von Schmidt had some major successes as a businessman. In June 1857, along with Mountain View Cemetery denizen Anthony Chabot and John Bensley, he found the San Francisco Water Works. The new company created the first regular supply of water from Lobos Creek, which previously was brought in on carts and sold at exorbitant prices.

In 1869, Von Schmidt titillated the residents of San Francisco with his plan to dynamite the submarine shelf between Alcatraz and Yerba Buena Island to open the channel for shipping. Residents gathered on Telegraph Hill to view the event, which Von Schimdt promised would “rock windows” and create an “earth wave.” Although the blast was successful, sending a column of water 200-feet in diameter into the sky, residents went home disappointed when the shockwaves failed to reach shore.

Alexis von Schmidt never built his “Grand Aqueduct,” but the water wars that he was so intimately involved with rage on with battles over Hetch Hetchy, north-south water rights and irrigation rights for the Central Valley.

Perhaps the Wednesday, April 25, 1900 issue of the Reno Gazette provided the most fitting epitaph for Von Schmidt when they lambasted him as “the would-be water stealer of the century” for his proposal to pipe water from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco.

Joseph Dieves - Oakland Brewer and Hotelier

[Photos of Dieves gravesite by Michael Colbruno]

Plot 8

Joseph Dieves was an innkeeper and co-owner of the Oakland Brewery at 9th & Broadway Street in Oakland (later located at Telegraph & Durant).

Dieves was born in Heimetzheim on the Rhine in Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1847 after spending time in France, Holland and Belgium. He made a living as a cabinet maker and farmer. In 1853, he arrived in San Francisco where he lived for a year, before finally settling in Oakland.

In 1856, he opened the Eagle Hotel at 2nd & Broadway, one of Oakland’s busiest hotels. He ended up owning other hotels in the area before investing in the Oakland Brewery with Charles Kramm. During their ownership steam superceded horsepower and the brewery capacity increased from 250 barrels a year in 1853 to 18,000 in 1886. Kramm and Dieves were not only business partners, but they were next door neighbors for many years.

The Dieves gravestone is inspired by the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens in London. The design appeared twenty years earlier in Scotland, but became popular after Queen Victoria erected the Gothic style memorial in 1872.

Theresa Olanie - Cast Iron Gravestone with Interesting Elements

[Photos by Michael Colbruno]

Plot 5

This post isn’t so much about the person buried here, but it’s about her gravestone, which has some fascinating elements. From a distance her gravestone looks like a typical marble marker, but on closer inspection one can spot rust. Theresa’s gravestone is made out of cast iron, which according to Douglas Keister in “Going Out in Style” was an option provided to families without a lot of money. Cast iron gravestones are relatively rare and this is a particularly special one since it has other interesting features.

The broken column, which one often sees in cemeteries, is usually a symbol of a child or young person whose life was cut short. In this case, Theresa Olanie died of hepatitis at 35 years of age, leaving behind her 4-year-old daughter Jenny, who was born in East Oakland and barely survived a childhood bout with typhoid fever.

The base of the gravestone is adorned with four slightly rusty flames, which are a symbol of eternity.

Theresa and her husband Felix Xavier (F.X.) Olanie came to Oakland from Alsace-Lorraine while France was under the rule of Napolean III. They sold their house and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on the ship New York. They made their way to San Francisco where they lived for seven years where F.X. worked as a patternmaker. The family became very involved with the local French community, which clustered around Clay Street.

The Brooklyn referred to on her gravestone is the old Oakland neighborhood, not the New York borough of the same name. According to family histories, F.X. married two more times to Jane and then to Katherina, both of whom the family records claim are buried in the family plot in Oakland. Felix died in 1907 of myocarditus and is also buried in the family plot.

Beverlee Peace Knudsen Holly Scott - Pioneering Editor

The name Leland Stanford Scott, Jr. caught my eye on this gravestone, but it turns out that his wife has the interesting biography. Not only does she come from interesting stock, but she had a pioneering career as a woman in journalism. Here's her obituary from the December 11, 1999 Contra Costa Times:

Beverlee Peace Knudsen Holly Scott died at her home in Kelly Ridge, Oroville, on Thanksgiving Day after a brief illness. She was the daughter of the late telephone pioneer, Ralph E. Knudsen, known as the "Man who linked the East to the West" when he made the last splice in the nation's first transcontinental telephone line at Wendover, Utah on June 17, 1914. Born the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the year the Great War ended, her middle name "Peace" was given to commemorate this day.*

The native Californian was born in Winters (Yolo County) and raised in Berkeley, where she attended school and served as president of the Theta Gamma Sorority.

She was a long time resident of Walnut Creek. In 1971 she married Leland Stanford Scott, Jr. They moved to Kelly Ridge in Oroville in 1975. They enjoyed world travel, fishing, hiking, and camping. He preceded her in death in 1995.

Mrs. Scott was a journalist and was the first editor of Tempo, a magazine for the State Farm insurance companies in Berkeley. She was a member of the Pacific Coast Association of Industrial Editors and was elected Corresponding Secretary, the first woman to hold this office. She was on staff of the Lafayette Sun prior to becoming founding editor of the Valley Pioneer Newspaper in Danville. She worked for the San Francisco Chronicle writing the Women's World column, also known as East Bay Banter. She served as Assistant Editor at Children's Hospital in Oakland prior to becoming Public Relations Director for Samuel Merritt Hospital, a position she held for fifteen years.

* Beverlee Scott's mother was Beulah Beryl Wallace, whose parents were Joseph M. and Augusta (Ruggles) Wallace of Yolo County.

Henry Brevard Davidson - Confederate General

Henry Brevard Davidson (1831-1899) was a Brigadier General who, according to Mountain View historian Dennis Evanosky, is one of only three Civil War veterans who fought for the Confederacy buried at the cemetery.

Davidson fought in the Mexican War at the Battle of Monterey and subsequently received an appointment to West Point. Davidson resigned his commission in the United States Army to serve his native state of Tennessee on the side of the Confederates. He rose to the rank of Brigadier General in 1863. He served under General Joe Wheeler in Rome, Georgia, where he created quite a ruckus with the troops when he adorned their horses with bright red calico sashes.

He later moved to California and became a civil engineer with the Southern Pacific Railroad.

From 1878 to 1886 he was inspector of United States public works at San Pedro, California and a year later was appointed deputy Secretary of State of California.

According to Evanosky, his grave remained unmarked until November 1990, when the Civil War Roundtable placed the bronze marker shown above at his gravesite.

Charles Lux - Once owned 1/7 of California

[Photos by Michael Colbruno]

Plot 28

Charles Lux was born in Hatten, Alsace in 1823. In 1838, he ran away from home and made his way to New York City where he landed a job as a delivery boy with Fulton Meat Market. In 1853, he made his way to San Francisco where he opened his own meat market on Washington Street in 1857.

Originally he worked as a butcher, before seizing the opportunity to buy cattle and land. He expanded his holdings to include 80,000 head of cattle and 700 miles of telegraph property. In 1858, he entered into business with fellow butcher and competitor Henry Miller. They formed Miller & Lux and their properties eventually included parts of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Monterey, San Benito, Merced, Stanislaus, Fresno, Tulare, Kern and San Louis Obispo counties, as well as additional properties in Oregon and Nevada. At one time, it was reported that Miller & Lux owned one-seventh of California. It was said that they could start their cattle at the southern limit of Arizona and drive them to Oregon without ever leaving their property.

Miller & Lux was located at Sacramento & Kearney in San Francisco and also had offices in the Central Valley.

He died of pneumonia on March 15, 1887, leaving half of his $20,000,000 estate to his wife and eleven heirs. One of his heirs, his nephew Charles Lux died penniless in 1910 after living life as a playboy and bon vivant from San Francisco to Paris London and Rome.

Clover and Elk

[Photo by Michael Colbruno. Click on the image for a larger view]

One of the most famous monuments at Mountain View Cemetery is the giant statue of an elk. Usually when you see a photo of the elk it's a typical straight on shot of the statue, often with a dramatic sky in the background. I took this shot from afar with the exploding blooms of clover in the foreground and the usually dominant elk a mysterious figure in the background, almost seeming alive and roaming around the grounds.

Samson Palmer and Aaron Boswell, King of the Gypsies

[Gravestone photos by Michael Colbruno; Drawings from the Oakland Tribune]

[Why I am using "Gypsy" rather than "Romani," which is the accepted, less pejorative term preferred today? The term "gypsy" is a shortened form of "Egyptian," as many people were believed to be from North Africa due to their darker skin color. Since both the news articles and many Romani from the U.K. self-identifed as "gypsies," I have opted to use this term for this post.]

Samson Palmer, Plot 11
Aaron Boswell, Plot 14B

About a year ago, on one of my many walks through Mountain View Cemetery, I stumbled across a tombstone that read, “Samson Palmer, Killed by Dick Woodruff, In Minn., Oct. 25, 1885. Aged 45 years.’ I had never seen a grave marker with someone’s killer on it before so I ran home to Google the name, but nothing came up. Finally, a few weeks ago, I found an old newspaper article from 1906 that solved the mystery and created a new one.

First, let's deal with Samson Palmer, the gypsy who was killed by his nephew Dick Woodruff “in a fit of temper,” according to a 1906 article in the Oakland Tribune. The trail went dry until I came upon an article in St. Paul Daily Globe from October 26, 1885. Dick Woodruff was actually his nephew Dick Smith. The band of gypsies was traveling from Arkansas to Minnesota and then California. The feud was over some derogatory comments that were allegedly made about family members. He was shot once in the abdomen with a .44 Colt revolver and bled to death. Palmer was described as "high-tempered when under the influence of alcohol" in the news account.

However, the Tribune article went on to state that Aaron Boswell, the King of the Gypsies, was also buried at Mountain View Cemetery. With the help of docent Stafford Buckley, who often accompanies me on my walks, we located his grave. I was shocked to find that Aaron Boswell, King of the Gypsies, lies under an old oak tree not far from the glorious Colton mausoleum, with nothing left but a broken and abandoned gravestone. Boswell’s cemetery records read, “Aaron Boswell aged 47. Born in England and Died of Dissipation.” [The gravestone has since been stolen and not recovered].

The newspaper accounts describe a funeral service that many of us probably never imagined occurred in Oakland. 

According to the Tribune of Sunday, December 3, 1907:

“The cemetery attendants who were at the funeral say the kings were buried in iron coffins and that the funeral services were conducted by Episcopal ministers. The Gypsies came in their camp wagons and wore their usual gaudy colors and bright beads. All except the royal family. They never wear bright colors or anything showy.
“King Boswell was born in England…He did not have to work unless he wished, for the band always supported him and everything he said was listened to and abeyed with the greatest of reverence. He was a handsome, dignified old man, very popular with his people. When he died he had wagons, harnesses and other property which was valued at over $8,000. These were all destroyed, for it is a custom of the Gypsies to burn everything belonging to the dead – their wearing apparel, wagons, harnesses and even the jewelry. The silver after it is melted is sold again.”

Old newspaper accounts tell of gypsy encampments in the city of Oakland and Emeryville as well as in the East Bay hills, where they could be found cooking vegetables and rabbit, or other animals hunted down in the vast wilderness.

According to the article on Boswell and Palmer, Gypsy encampments had been in Oakland for twenty-five years at the time of their deaths.

Around the beginning of the 20th Century, Gypsy populations in California were estimated at around 300 people. American gypsies generally came here from Europe, often England and Scotland, and their roots can be traced back to India. Even their language, which is a peculiar form of English, has Sanskrit elements. Gypsy lore claims that the Romany people started to drift into Europe after the Tartar Khan drove them from India around 1235. After about 1300, they began spreading throughout Europe and much later made their way to America.

The preeminent gypsy historian Konrad Bercovici claims that gypsies first came to America around 1790.

The rule of the Gypsy King was a tradition of English gypsies that made its way to the clans who settled on the West Coast. Occasionally, they would be ruled by a queen, but it was uncommon. The flashy gypsies of modern folklore who traveled with monkeys and other animals were rooted in southern European gypsy culture and not common to this area. Most of the gypsies in Oakland wore plain clothing and traveled in drab wagons, unlike their flashier counterparts.

They moved around in caravans for two reasons, work and social attitudes. For many gypsies in California seasonal farm work was all that was available to them. They would pick crops during the harvest season and then move on. Upon arrival in Oakland they would set up carts on street corners and offer services like fortune-telling, knife sharpening or sell their wares. Because they were often unkempt and mistrusted, they were asked to leave and, thus, they were nomadic.

There is some dispute as to the religious beliefs of gypsies. Most of the Oakland gypsies were descendants of the Catholic or Episcopalian faiths. A 1923 Oakland Tribune article claimed that “the Romany tongue holds no words for God, the soul, or immortality” However, records show that parts of the Bible have been translated into the Romany language.

Thirty years after Boswell and Palmer were buried, the Gypsies made news again in Oakland when a 15-year-old girl was kidnapped by a band of Gypsies. An account from the December 10, 1915 Oakland Tribune gives her account of life with the Gypsies:

“The life in the Gypsy camp was horrible. For over a year I have not had a bath. It was hard to be allowed even to wash my face and hands. I was made to sleep sometimes upon the bare earth
“Last night one of the Gypsy women became a mother. They gave her a piece of canvas for a bed. No doctor was called, but she did not seem to mind. She had no trouble, and if her man ordered her she would carry her day-old baby along the road or sit in one of the wagons all day while the camp moved to another city.
“It was a horrible life. It has left its mark upon me and life will never seem the same.

“There are other girls who have been kidnapped who have never been heard of. I have talked with them in other Gypsy camps. They have never been able to escape and the terrible life has ruined their bodies and their feelings.”

After her story made the news, federal authorities began an investigation and local authorities from the health department checked out the conditions in the camps and promised that the Gypsies would be permanently removed from Oakland. Apparently, the authorities weren’t completely successful, as I found accounts of gypsies in Oakland for a revival meeting in 1923, led by their then King, Naylor Harrison.

According to Dr. Walter Starkle, a leading expert on gypsies, their demise in America occurred around 1933 when the United States abandoned the gold standard. Gypsy wealth was predicated on their ownership of gold and once it was abandoned their wealth was quickly squandered with the new paper currency.

[Original text by Michael Colbruno]

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Henry Bratnober - Mining Legend; Associate of Guggenheims and Rothschilds

[Photo of grave by Michael Colbruno; Third photo, Henry with niece Pauline]

Plot 45

Henry Bratnober was born in Castrine, Prussia in 1849 and immigrated to Galena, Illinois with his family in 1854. In 1864, he joined the 36th Wisconsin Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. In 1866, he traveled to Montana and began a career as a miner. In 1897, he traveled to the Klondike country in Alaska where he became an associate of the Guggenheims, worked as the western representative for the Rothschilds and bought and sold mines for the London Exploration Company.

Bratnober played a major role in the development of the Alaska gold and copper mines and the construction of a 400-mile Alaskan rail line for J. Pierpont Morgan and the Guggenheims. Bratnober settled in many previously unexplored regions of Alaska looking for gold. The records show many great successes as well as some massive failures. Historical accounts also seem to indicate that he was a colorful figure with and oversized personality.

In 1903, Bratnober made national news when he rescued three men from starvation in the outlands of Alaska and managed to alert authorities who were then sent to assist hundreds of other men who were left behind without provisions.

At the end of the 19th Century, Henry and his wife Ella purchased the Gamble House (see photo) in Piedmont, located at Piedmont Avenue and Bonita. The mansion which no longer exists was located on seven acres and had a carriage house. News accounts claim that Henry’s den had one of the largest collections of animal heads on the West Coast, including bison and reindeer.

By 1907, Bratnober’s fortunes apparently took a turn for the worse and he sold his impressive house. Records show that he briefly lived in East Oakland and eventually lived with his brother. In 1914, he applied for a Civil War pension from the federal government. His brother Augustus wrote to his sister that Henry had “wasted half a million dollars.”

The Bratnobers had no children. He died in Livermore, California in 1914 after a brief illness.

Bratnober has a mountain named after him in the Yukon Territory, Canada.