Genetic Genealogy led me to my great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Alma "Libby" Barker, and her husband, Dr. Carl David Salfield. They lived in San Francisco, California, so I expect you know which disaster I'll be featuring this week.
Generally, the San Francisco newspapers called Dr. C.D. Salfield "a neighborhood activist," or "civic leader." However, occasionally, they would include a direct quote, naming him a "crank" or "crackpot." Serving as president for the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Association, Salfield and his causes were frequently in the news. He advocated passionately for everything from a reliable water supply and fire protection to passable roads, safe schools and, most of all, transparency in government.
After the expression of these sentiments, it was decided to appoint a committee to amend the resolution which was "an obvious attempt to give the Supervisors an opportunity to break their pledge," and Dr. C.D. Salfield, C.S. Crittenden, R.D. Cranston, W.J. Langstaff and A. Tilden were named to alter the document.
-- San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 1899
I mean, the man had a point...
Just after 5am on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, disaster struck in San Francisco in the form of an earthquake. This was before modern measurement tools but experts have since estimated it to have been about 8.0 on the modern Richter scale. Many communities up and down the San Andreas Fault experienced building collapse and damage to utilities, especially water pipelines. Even before the big quake, the business district of San Francisco was largely built on land that had been "created" by dumping of garbage, debris and even more sand on top of sandy marshes was alleged by many to be so unstable that people said they'd seen it swallow up foundations, vehicles, even a cow. The destruction from the earthquake was tremendous, but the real horror came when the fires started, most likely ignited when wood-burning stoves used for cooking and heating were thrown about. Fire raged for the next three days. When the inferno subsided, it was estimated that more than 3000 people had died. The business district and government buildings were simply gone: more than 25 THOUSAND buildings were destroyed and over 500 blocks leveled in the almost-five-square-mile burned area, shown in the shaded area on this current-day map:
Salfield's brother-in-law, John Gue Barker, lived with his wife and daughter in the Colonial Hotel on Nob Hill. The Colonial, owned and operated by Barker's mother-in-law, Sarah Johnson, withstood the quake and the Barkers managed to escape the building before fire took it, but were able to save few of their possessions. Months later, Barker was still trying to track down the Hotel's business papers... but others had lost so much more.
Carl Salfield and his wife, Libby, lived just east of the newly-developed Golden Gate Park. On Thursday, as the fires began, they hurriedly shut up the house and made their way to Oakland, across the Bay to the east, where they were fortunate to find accommodation. Salfield then headed further inland to Stockton, where his nephew, David, a prominent architect, was working.
With the water supply being one of the first losses to the earthquake, the only tool firefighters had to work with was a limited supply of dynamite that they were trying to save for a single, definitive strike. As a result, many police and firemen were deployed to enforce the declaration of marshal law, patrolling neighborhoods to watch for errant sparks and prevent looting.
So Carl was apparently surprised when he stopped by a few weeks later to check on the house and found that valuables, including the furniture, were missing! I expect he recognized that he was still very lucky to have a house standing, but in the interest of insurance claims and the status of neighborhood security, he made a police report, nonetheless.
The newspaper account of the reported burglary was followed by another the next day, rather mocking in tone. According to the second story, unbeknownst to Dr. Salfield, his wife had returned to the house and packed everything up and sent it out of the city.
My first reaction to this story was to laugh. My second was to be a little disappointed that, when so many were losing so much, Libby had commandeered resources over something as trivial as furniture.
But now I just want to know -- how did she do it? How did Libby manage such a mammoth task at a time when horses and wagons were in tremendously short supply. Where did she have the things taken? I'm not sure how she even got back over to the peninsula from Oakland. I just have so many questions!
They say that the earthquake and fire revolutionized everything from architectural design, construction methods and, especially in San Francisco, ensuring that the water, sewer, gas and eventually electric supplies were robust and redundant. Dr. Salfield kept his hand in, arguing about everything from the size of water delivery pipes (those proposed were too small) to the implementation of school lunch counters (he was opposed -- walking home provided healthful exercise and the school system should not be in competition with local restauranteurs). Sometimes he won and sometimes he lost, but he remained active in civic policy and politics until his death in 1929.
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