Thank you for joining us for tonight's presentation of Murder in Old Oakland, an original WhoDunit game by Camron-Stanford House.
The plot and, with two exceptions, the players depicted in Murder in Old Oakland are fictional. And while the storyline and characters are inspired by early Oakland history, as far as can be known, none of the real-life principals murdered anyone.
The locations mentioned did exist, though not always concurrently.
-The Detectives-
William and Franklina Bartlett were residents of the Camron-Stanford House from 1877-1881.
William Springer Bartlett was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1843. He came to California in 1870 and began a career as a bank clerk in San Francisco. He met Franklina while they were both guests at the Tubb’s Hotel and attending the same Presbyterian church in Oakland.
In 1875, the couple was engaged – just in time for Franklina to embark on a 2-year Grand Tour with her mother and new step-father, David Hewes. William saved every letter Franklina sent him during this time. When Franklina returned, they were married in the Camron-Stanford House in 1878 and William moved into the home.
Though William wasn’t considered rich by Oakland society, he did well for himself. He rose through the ranks of the San Francisco Bank and Trust, surviving several financial crashes in the late 19th Century and later served as the president of two large banks in Los Angeles.
Franklina Gray Bartlett was born in Brooklyn to a family with roots in Virginia. She and her mother came to California in 1873 hoping to finally settle her father’s estate. Franklin Gray had died before Franklina’s birth in 1853. At the time of his death, he owned property in San Francisco and a casino in Saratoga.
Following a 2-year Grand Tour of Europe and the Middle East, Franklina began her married life at Camron-Stanford House where she and her husband, William, resided with her mother and step-father. It was here that the young couple welcomed their first child in 1879.
Franklina was classically educated, curious about all things, and highly opinionated. In later life, the family settled into an impressive estate in Los Angeles where Franklina continued to contribute to local newspaper publications and teach courses in art history through the local Ebell society.
The Victim
Virgil Hammer is inspired by Horace Walpole Carpentier, a controversial figure in Oakland’s early development.
A young New York lawyer and Columbia graduate, Carpentier arrived in California during the Gold Rush period. Along with his partners, Andrew Moon and Edson Adams, he acquired, by unscrupulous if not illegal means, the 160 acres that stretched from what is now Jack London Square to 14th Street, west of Lake Merritt. In 1853 the partners incorporated the land as the town of Oakland and gave Carpentier ownership of the entire waterfront. He was also the town’s first mayor.
In 1888 Carpentier returned to New York. He died of natural causes in 1918 at 92, a bachelor with an estimated wealth of four million dollars, (the equivalent of $68 million in 2019). His estate left $1million each to Columbia and Barnard Universities, as well as $100,000 to the University of California. He financed a home for the poor and gave a significant amount to the Tuskegee Institute in memory of its founder, Booker T. Washington.
The Suspects
Adélaïs Delvaux is inspired by Mrs. James Burke.
Her first and maiden names are unknown. She was described as half-French and a divorcée. She and her husband were acquaintances of Horace Carpentier. Horace Carpentier may have been her suitor following James’ death or her divorce from a second husband.
Captain Sam Grassley’s inspiration is Colonel John Coffee Hays.
Originally from Tennessee, Hays had been a Texas Ranger and San Francisco’s first elected sheriff. In the 1850s Hays headed a consortium that bought large sections of East Bay land from the Spanish landowners with the intention of forming a city. Unfortunately, Carpentier and his partners acted first.
Hays and his wife had six children and many grandchildren. Their family estate, Fernwood, was built along Temescal Creek in lower Montclair. Present-day Moraga Road follows the original path from 19th century Oakland to the estate’s site. Destroyed by fire in 1899, all that remains is the stone foundation along Thornhill Drive and Mountain Boulevard.
Hays died at home in 1883 at the age of 66.
(Image: John Coffee Hays by Matthew Brady, ca. 1858. Image from Library of Congress.)
Henrietta Hammer is inspired by three of Carpentier’s relatives.
Alice Carpentier was Carpentier’s only sister. There is no record of her ever living with Horace in California, however, he did name the street his house was on, near the estuary, in her honor.
Using her power of attorney Horace made Harriet Carpentier, his father’s cousin, the owner of record of Oakland’s waterfront. Harriet does not appear to have ever lived in California either. It is not known if either woman married or had a sweetheart.
Caroline B. Crocker, thought to be a widowed cousin, was Horace’s housekeeper in New York City.
Madalyn Inman is inspired by Maud Burke, James Burke’s daughter.
Maud was born in San Francisco, (though not until 1872). After James’ death, Horace probably did become Maud’s guardian, despite rumors that Horace collected young female ‘wards’.
In 1888 Maud moved to New York City with Carpentier. Carpentier did supply the dowry Maud used in her European search for a titled husband. And Maud did land a prince: André Poniatowski, a descendant of Polish royalty. When he met another California heiress, a member of the Crocker family, he dumped her.
At 23 Maud married Sir Bache Cunard, the 43-year-old heir to a British steamship fortune. The marriage was a bore, but in London-- as Lady Emerald Cunard-- she rose to prominence. Noted for her scandalous affairs, celebrated London salon, and country weekends, she counted the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson among her intimate friends.
Maud died in London in 1948.
(Image: Maud Burke, 1895. Image from Munsey Magazine.)
Mabela Meyers is inspired by Mabel Reigelman.
Born in Cincinnati to Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Reigelman in 1888, Mabel and her younger pianist sister, Ruby, were raised in Oakland. Their home was at 1155 Brush Street. In 1905 the two sisters traveled to Germany to be tutored by Mme. Johanna Gadski, an extremely celebrated operatic soprano.
Mabel made her American debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera, singing Humperdink's soprano role of Gretel. The Opera News described Mabel as “...versatile, clever, a brilliant musician, a lovely voice, an exceedingly gifted actress and a charming dancer…”. She soon became a prima donna soprano as grand opera's “littlest and most vivacious soprano”. Critics called her an outstanding concert artist and she was acclaimed America's best "Gretel" and La Bohème’s “Musetta”.
She married Marcus Lorne Samuels, a jeweler. The family lived in San Francisco at 485 California Street where they raised their one son, Lorne. Mabel died in 1967.
It is not known if Carpentier knew either the Reigelman sisters or Mme. Gadski, however, he was a keen opera buff.
Widow Nearly is inspired by Henrietta Farrelly, the widow of a wealthy banker, Robert S. Farrelly.
In 1853 Robert Farrelly, representing San Leandro, lost the California Assembly election to Horace Carpentier. Farrelly accused Carpentier of fraud and claimed collusion on the part of election officials.
Robert died, not months later, but almost 25 years later, from complications suffered in a stairway fall. Henrietta lived another 20 years, dying at the age of 90 at her San Leandro estate. She was childless, remained wealthy, and maintained a sound mind to the end. There is no indication that she was an herbalist, believed in reincarnation, or had a particular attachment to cats.
Mr. and Mrs. Farrelly were well acquainted with Horace Carpentier but were never his neighbors.
Domingo (Or Dominga) Oliveros is inspired by the Peralta Family.
In honor of his military service, Luis Maria Peralta was awarded 44,800 acres by the Spanish monarchy.
In 1843 Rancho San Antonio, stretching roughly from Albany to San Leandro was divided amongst his four sons: Hermenegildo Ignacio, Antonio Maria, Jose Vicente, and Jose Domingo.
Following the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and California statehood, the Peraltas eventually lost all ownership through both legal and illegal means. The historical consensus is that Horace Carpentier swindled the Peraltas, whereas Colonel Hays dealt fairly with the family.
Antonio Maria Peralta’s Italianate frame house, built in 1870, still stands as a historical landmark. It is open for public tours as part of the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, a short walk from the Fruitvale BART station.
Dr. Carolina Potter is inspired by two 19th century Oakland doctors, Chloe Buckel and Myra Knox.
Both were early members of the Oakland Ebell Society, a women’s organization founded in 1876 to promote self-education.
Dr. Buckel was the first woman admitted to the Alameda County Medical Association. She lived in Piedmont with Charlotte Playter, daughter of an Oakland mayor.
She founded the Home Club of Alameda for homemakers and formed a pure milk commission which worked to exclude cows with tuberculous from supplying milk to local dairies.
Dr. Knox, a widow, arrived in Oakland in 1880 with her two young daughters. She established a thriving practice from her home at 958 14th Street. She was the first woman physician at the state-operated Industrial Home for the Blind located at Telegraph and 36th Street. She also served on the Merritt Hospital Board and joined Dr. Buckel's Home Club of Alameda.
While she did not specifically campaign for clean water, she spoke often and publicly about the unsanitary and unsafe conditions of Lake Merritt and its surrounding roads.
There is no evidence that either woman knew Horace Carpentier.
Buford ‘Old Man’ Starr is inspired by Andrew J. Moon.
Moon was considerably older than his associates, Carpentier and Adams.
The three business partners meet aboard ship on the months-long journey from New York to San Francisco around Cape Horn. Moon had been an Army Major, not a successful land developer or lawyer.
He did marry, at the age of 54, and fathered three children.
Moon served on Oakland’s first board of trustees but he was not a county officer.
Seamus Whittier’s inspiration is Leland Stanford.
Horace Carpentier did do business with Stanford. Carpentier approached him and Charles Crocker, two of the Central Pacific Railroad associates, suggesting Oakland as the Western terminus for the transcontinental railroad. To secure the arrangement Carpentier signed over the title to 500 acres of Oakland waterfront to the CPRR. Carpentier’s profits were in the millions. It is not known if he, or Carpentier, belonged to the Athenian Club or smoked cigars.
What is documented is Stanford’s strong dislike of the Chinese, a widespread prejudice at the time. This despite the fact that he favored their immigration. The construction of the railroad depended on Chinese labor.
Stanford was married and the father of one son, in whose honor he founded a university.
Reverend Ebenezer (or Eliza) Winters is inspired by Reverend Obediah Summers.
Originally enslaved in Missouri, Summers was a servant for a Confederate officer. After his capture in 1862, rather than return to Missouri, Summers, then 18, enlisted in the Union Army, serving as a private in the United States Colored Troops. At war’s end, he became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Working first in Nebraska then transferring to California, he finally came to Oakland in 1890 where he built the “Old Bethel” church on 15th Street. He also served as the California State Legislature’s first African American chaplain. His home, on 32nd Street near the Emeryville/Oakland border, is said to still stand.
It is doubtful that Carpentier and Summers knew one another as their dates in Oakland and the California Assembly do not overlap.
Carpentier did build a small schoolhouse in Oakland in partial exchange for his waterfront title but there is no record that it ever served as a church.
Thyme Baker is inspired by Dean Lung, Horace Carpentier’s actual valet. Dean is an Americanization of his family name, possibly Ding.
Very little is known about his origins other than his birth in Guangdon, China in 1857, and that he came to the United States at the age of 18. Carpentier may have met Dean in San Francisco or, possibly, in China, as Carpentier made several trips there.
When Carpentier returned to New York, Dean went with him. Carpentier is reputed to have beaten his valet in at least one instance. If so, Dean, a devout follower of Confucius, likely forgave him. Learning from his servant, Carpentier is said to have refrained from further abuse and came to hold Dean and Chinese culture in high regard.
Illiterate but highly respectful of education, near the end of his life Dean asked Carpentier to donate the money he had saved to fund Chinese Studies at Columbia, where Carpentier was a trustee. Moved by this, Carpentier added $200,000. in his honor for the endowment of Chinese Studies, which is now the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. The Dean Lung Professorship of Chinese Studies continues today.
The Locations
The Athenian Club was organized in 1883. In 1915 it merged with the Nile Club. For the next 50+ years, the Athenian-Nile Club was Oakland’s premier men’s social club. Its elite membership included most of the town’s movers and shakers. The 1901 building that housed the club was designed by Walter J. Mathew. Now home to Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, a live music venue, the building still stands at the corner of 14th and Franklin Street, a short walk from Camron-Stanford House.
Camp Yerba Buena was established after the Civil War in 1868 as a regular Army camp. An octagonal lighthouse with a fog signal was added in 1875. It still stands today. In 1880 the island and its improvements were transferred to the Navy.
Dietz Opera House was Oakland’s first theatre. It was located on the northeast corner of Webster Street and 12th Street. The building, built around 1869, was originally Brayton Hall, a part of the University of California before that institution moved to Berkeley in 1873.
The theater ceased operations in 1905. On May 1, 1911, the wooden Dietz Opera House burned to the ground.
Dupont Restaurant was adjacent to the Lake View Cottage. August Dupont operated the inn, restaurant and saloon through 1896. The cottage was an expansion of an earlier French restaurant, "Bellevue du Rendez-vous de Chasse" more commonly known as House of Blaze. The resort sat on pilings over San Antonio Creek (Lake Merritt) on the south edge of the 12th Street Dam.
Idora Park was an entertainment and amusement complex on the Key System route in North Oakland, bounded by Telegraph Avenue, Shattuck Avenue, 56th and 58th streets. It was constructed in 1904. Admission to the park was 10 cents, amusement rides were 5 cents. The park was open 30 or more weeks per year.
Idora Park boasted the first outdoor public address system, the first radio theater in the West, and the largest searchlight in the world. There was a zoo, ostrich farm, animal shows, dance hall, racetrack, amphitheater, Japanese garden, bear grotto, penny arcade, photo gallery, and shooting gallery. In 1904 a ballpark with a 3000-seat double-deck grandstand was added.
The park had the largest roller skating rink in California. The rink had a bandstand in its center and a mountain slide that sported a firework volcanic display on Saturday nights, along with balloon ascensions. It was the favorite practice rink for Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Vaudeville performers performed on Idora Park stages. This is where Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand started.
In 1922 Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, leader of the first ‘megachurch’, hosted 10,000 baptisms in the park’s swimming tanks.
Seven years later Idora Park was razed. Modest storybook style houses, apartment buildings, and retail shops eventually occupied the 17 acres adjacent to Bushrod Park.
The Oakland Trotting Park was built in 1871 west of San Pablo Avenue and east of the Shellmound. When Emeryville was incorporated in 1896, the racetrack fell within its border. Originally a venue for harness racing, the park failed to turn a profit and was renovated and renamed the New California Jockey Club that same year.
In 1909 betting on horse races was outlawed in California. The racetrack continued to be used for motorcar racing and aerial displays. In 1915 it burned to the ground following the start of its demolition.
Today Pixar and BioMed campuses cover much of the site.
The 1853 Presbyterian Chinese Mission, once located in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown, is the inspiration for Reverend Gunn’s mission, mentioned by Herb Baker.
The mission’s purpose was to, “give the Chinese in California instruction in Christian religion and the European arts and sciences.” [Daily Alta California, July 23, 1853]. Its founder, William Speer, is remembered as a champion of Chinese immigrants at a time when they faced great animosity.
When Speer left in 1857, the year Dean Lung was born, the mission closed. In 1859 it reopened with an expanded role as the first public school in the United States for Chinese children.
The church was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.
An Abundance of Arsenic
Arsenic was in wide and indiscriminate use during the Victorian era. It was cheap and anyone could purchase it.
Most popular as a household rodent and garden weed killer, it was also used in horse tonics which claimed to stimulate appetites, give glossier coats, and treat anemia. Taxidermists used arsenic-laced soap to preserve animals, such as the birds mounted on ladies' hats.
Arsenic was prescribed as a treatment for many human disorders, including psoriasis. Victorian-era women ate arsenic wafers, dusted themselves with arsenic-laced powders in an effort to appear pale, and used arsenic lotions for any number of complexion concerns.
Because its use produced a brilliant green color when mixed with copper, (dubbed "Scheele's Green" or "Paris Green") the compound was often used in wallpaper, paints, fabrics, and many other items. Over Many people, especially women-- both those who wore the fabrics, and those who worked in the factories creating them-- suffered in the name of fashion. The use of arsenic on clothing and in the home resulted in skin eruptions and discoloration, vision and eye problems, respiratory complications, and in extreme circumstances, even death.
Murder in Old Oakland
A Victorian WhoDunit game by Camron-Stanford House
Story by Vicki Jacobs
Copyright Camron-Stanford House
Credits:
Camron-Stanford House