Aftershock! Personal Stories

 

Mrs. M.H. de Young

Henry Anderson Lafler

Charles Richter

Flora Allen

Dennis Sullivan, the Chief of the SFFD

Benjamin Franklin Meadows

Gladys Hansen

Pietro (Peter) Toresani

Maynard Dixon

The Henry Penwright Johnson Family

Makoto Hagiwara

Daniel Cornelius Murphy and Annie M. Kelly

Amadeo Peter (A.P.) Giannini

Jean Quan

Ansel Adams

Cathy Berumen

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A.2.1.08

Mrs. M.H. de Young

Mrs. M. H. de Young would never miss the social event of the year-- Enrico Caruso’s performance in the opera Carmen.  It was not only a night to see an amazing performance but to be seen as well.  Mrs. de Young was part of the cosmopolitan crowd of San Francisco. While Mrs. Frederick Kohl and Mary Leary Flood wore dog collars of diamonds and diamond tiaras,  Mrs. de Young wore a white brocade with a coronet of diamonds.  The opera house was illuminated by the sparkle of diamonds.  In less than 24 hours, Mrs. M.H.  de Young’ house and many of her belongs would be destroyed by the most destructive fire in American history. 

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 C.1.1.8

Henry Anderson Lafler

 

…[O] n the morning of April 18th, I lay on a couch beneath the skylight in my studio, ..when I became conscious of noise and motion and at that moment I stood naked, but for an undergarment, on the roof of the building, having leapt through the open window.  The tilting, heaving, throbbing roof; the thick, furious roar of falling walls; the whitish-yellow dust that choked and blinded – these were the things that smote my senses…

 

Henry Anderson Lafter wrote accounts of the 1906 earthquake and fire and sold them to East Coast magazines and newspapers.  Published articles included “How it Feels to be a Looter,” in the New York Sun and “My Sixty Sleepless Hours:  A Story of the San Francisco Earthquake,” in McClure’s.    Thousands read his articles hungry for a ground-zero account from the quake and fire. At the time of the quake, Henry had been the literary editor of the Argonaut and publisher of a short-story magazine, The Blue Mule. Shortly after the disaster, Lafler wrote a scathing pamphlet attacking General Funston and the conduct of the military during the post-quake fires. While his contemporary articles impressed the nation’s understanding of the disaster, Lafter’s pamphlet inspired the historical critiques of the government’s mishandled response to the quake and fire.

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 C.3.1.16

 Charles Richter

Charles Richter never intended on becoming a seismologist.  One day, when he was working on his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), his mentor told him about a physicist position in the Seismological Laboratory. He joined the lab’s staff in 1927 and participated on the routine work of measuring, locating and cataloging earthquakes. Richter suggested to his supervisor, Mr. Harry Wood, that they could compare earthquakes in terms of measured magnitudes rather than intensity since intensity varies.  In 1934, Richter created a mathematical formula for comparing earthquakes’ magnitudes.  The Richter Magnitude scale is now used worldwide. 

 

In an 1980 interview the United States Geological Survey, Charles Richter commented on how surprised he was with his invention.  

The most remarkable feature about the magnitude scale was that it worked at all and that it could be extended on a worldwide basis.  It was originally envisaged as a rather rough-and-ready procedure by which we could grade earthquakes…It actually turned out to be a quite a finely tuned scale.

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C.3.1.X

Flora Allen

 

Even though Flora Allen was only 3 when the earthquake struck, her memories of it stayed with her until her death at age 102.  Later in her life, she was a yearly participant of the commemoration ceremonies for the 1906 earthquake and fire at Lotta’s Fountain.

 

The bed fell down.  I remember screaming when the earthquake struck.   My dad dressed and hurried to downtown San Francisco to his hotel.  We lived in South San Francisco on Randolph.  I was the 14th child.  I was only 3 years and 9 months but I remember everything.  Mostly, I remember the color of the sky when the fires in San Francisco started.  It was so red.  My older brother lifted me up to a wonder and said, “see, that is why the sky is so red, San Francisco is on fire.”  We lived on a hill outside of the city and the sky was so bright.  My three oldest brothers and dad went to fight the fire.  People we knew from the city came to stay in our house.  The house was full of people.  We left California three years later and moved to Mexico.  There we got caught in the Revolution.    

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D.2.1.11

Dennis Sullivan, the Chief of the SFFD

 

Dennis Sullivan was the fire chief of the San Francisco Fire Department for thirteen years.   During his reign, Sullivan was positive that a great fire was going to strike San Francisco and tried to prepare the city.  He acquired new firefighting technology and training.  He also tried to receive additional city funding for training firefighters in using dynamite, and begged officials to revitalize the city’s water facilities, but was denied on both accounts. Chief Sullivan did not live to lead his men to fight the Great Fire of 1906.  When the earthquake struck, a portion of the California Hotel toppled onto the firehouse at 410 Bush Street where he and his wife were sleeping.  She survived her injuries, he did not.  The loss of Dennis Sullivan played a monumental role in the fate of San Francisco during the fires.  Those that filled Sullivan’s shoes were less qualified, hindering the efforts of those trying to save the city from ruin. 

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D.1.1.08

 Benjamin Franklin Meadows

 

Benjamin Franklin Meadows of Berkeley found out about the earthquake like everyone else; it woke him up. Meadows and his family were not initially affected by the rattle but a few days later, when the family was eating breakfast, the disaster came pounding at the front door.  As his daughter remembered:  “The cook went to answer and hurried back, wide-eyed, exclaiming, “Mr. Edwards!  There are soldiers banging on the door with their guns.  They want you.”

 

Her dad believed that President Theodore Roosevelt had put San Francisco and the surrounding area under martial law.  The authorities recruited Meadows because he own edan automobile, the second person to do so in Berkeley.  He and his “horseless carriage” were asked to come to San Francisco during the 74 hours of fire.  His daughter remembered:

 

My dad went each day to San Francisco, where one of his first assignments was the transportation of dynamite which was used in the effort to stop the spread of the fire.  He did not approve of this procedure, but did what he was told to do.

 

He continued to assist government officials as long as he was needed.  Each night he would return home with a car filled with refugees, several of whom stayed with Meadows.   

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E.01.01.05

Gladys Hansen

 

Gladys Hansen is San Francisco’ archivist emeritus and curator of the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.  In 1963, her research about the 1906 earthquake and fire began when she started working at the San Francisco Archives Room of the Library where she oversaw the genealogy collection.  Researchers asked her for the official list of those who died in the disaster, but she was unable to ever locate one.  Gladys started to compile the next best thing, her own list.  As Hansen combed through newspapers and investigated old city records, she would write each name of those who perished on a 3 x 5 card. Defining an “earthquake dead” as anyone who dies at the time of the disaster or within a year of the disaster as a result of injuries received, her number grew beyond the official number of 498. 

 

Her efforts continue to this day.  She, along with her son Richard Hansen, have created the “Great Register,” an on-line listing of those who perished. Gladys is in negotiations with San Francisco’s city officials to change the official number of the dead of the ’06 disaster.  Strongly against celebrating or commemorating the 1906 earthquake, Hansen remains focused in her pursuit. In a 1996 interview with San Francisco Chronicle Gladys remarked about her endeavors to determine an accurate number she suspects is closer to 3,000.

 

“Sometimes I think all those who died are right here behind us saying, ‘Keep going.  Keep going.  Keep going.’”

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E.01.01.17

Pietro (Peter) Toresani

 

Pietro (Peter) Toresani was a new immigrant from Italy.  He worked as a lamp maker and magician. He lived in the Latin Quarter (comprised of North Beach and Telegraph Hill) a section of the city known for its large immigration population, which included Australians, Peruvians, Chileans, and Italians- the majority. 

 

Pietro Toresani documented his experiences during and after the quake in his journal he titled “Le Mie Avventure Descritte.”  Written in Italian, Pietro describes the profound impact the disaster had on his neighborhood, the Latin Quarter.

 

All alone, I started to go down the steps of Kearney and I was looking to the right and the left at all of the wooden houses, one had become crooked, one was now without gutters, one even folded in such a way I could not enter the house! … [B]ut this was absolutely nothing, because as soon as I took the street down from the hill I wasn’t surprised anymore because I didn’t see any houses standing anymore because everything had sunk, destroyed and fallen to the ground, where to go! .. [L]ike a crazy man I was looking here and there at an infinity of dead bodies horribly squashed, horses of any kind and quality wretchedly smashed!  Then I thought that easily the same thing could have happened to me as it did to them!

 

Translated by Giovanni Ferro-Luzzi Ames

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F.01.01.02

Maynard Dixon

 

The 1906 earthquake and fire displaced many of San Francisco’s artists including Maynard Dixon.  By 1906, Dixon was a well-known illustrator of the Old West.  His drawings were seen in publications such as the Morning Call and Sunset Magazine.  Maynard and his wife rushed to his studio on the April 18th and carried away as many western artifacts they could.  His studio was full of his collection, props he used for his art.  The fires consumed the studio destroying much of what was left behind.  With no place to draw, Dixon sought commissions elsewhere.  His illustration of himself fleeing the disaster, with props in hand, along with his artwork on the cover of the special issue of Sunset magazine,  The Spirit of the City became iconic images of the 1906 earthquake and fire. 

 

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F.01.01.03

The Henry Penwright Johnson Family

 

Henry P. Johnson was a barber in San Francisco when he met Amy Powell.  Amy was the niece of Pauline Powell Burns, a well-known African American artist and musician.  They married in 1901 and had their first daughter, Mildred Eugenia, in 1905.  The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed their home and they fled to Oakland and stayed there. Fortunately, Henry’s barbershop in San Francisco survived the blaze; after the disaster he commuted daily to work from Oakland to San Francisco. Most members of San Francisco’s African American community moved to Oakland, either temporarily or to stay, more than doubling the African American population.

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F.01.01.04

Makoto Hagiwara

 

Makoto Hagiwara was one of the most successful Japanese Americans living in San Francisco at the time of the quake.  He masterminded the transformation of the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park from a temporary exhibit for the 1894 Midwinter Fair into a permanent installation in the Park.  He increased its size and imported many plants, bronzes and rare Japanese birds for the grounds.  The Hagiwara family lived on the premises and served tea to visitors of the garden.  In 1900, the city took management of the garden away from Makoto and evicted the family from their home.  Makoto created a competing “Japanese Village” across the street from the Park.  It was there Japanese American refugees fled to during the 1906 earthquake and fire.  The Hagiwara family supplied food and shelter for those displaced. 

 

The earthquake damaged the Japanese Tea Garden to such an extent that city officials asked the Hagiwaras to move back in 1907. They did so until 1942 when they were evicted and relocated to an internment camp.  Their house was demolished. 

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F.02.01.16

Daniel Cornelius Murphy and Annie M. Kelly

 

Daniel Cornelius Murphy, a printing pressman for The Call newspaper, and Annie M. Kelly, a laundress were planned to wed on April 18, 1906, when fate stepped in.  As they fled the fires, Annie saved her wedding dress, to her nothing was more important.  One week later, they married.  They were not alone.

 

Between April 18 and May 30, 1906, 418 San Francisco couples married than had ever been married in one entire year in the history of San Francisco.  Throughout the Bay Area, 600 couples tied the knot.  The New York Times reported that one of the first order for jewelry in the City were 160 weddings rings.  Journalists speculated as to why the upsurge—economics, love at first sight, companionship, personal ads from newly single women, reuniting of loved ones, perseverance of young couples, hurrying of nuptial plans. 

 

For information about “Earthquake Marriages” check out http://www.sfgenealogy.com.

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F.02.01.10

Amadeo Peter (A.P.) Giannini

 

A.P. Giannini had only been in the banking business for 2 years before the disaster.  He had began his own bank, the Bank of Italy, to help those not traditionally served by banks and focusing on working-class customers.  When the earthquake struck, Giannini was the only San Francisco banker to rescue his banks gold and cash reserves and transported them to San Mateo.  After the quake he set up temporary offices at his brother’s house on Van Ness Avenue and at the wharf, giving out loans to those in need; other banks were unable to service costumers because their reserves were stored in safes which they were not able to open for fear their contents would burn.  Giannini’s quick response made his bank legendary, and transformed the Bank of Italy into the Bank of America in less than 20 years.

 

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G.01.01.17

Jean Quan

 

My grandfather Bing Quan was born in 1879 in China and came to the U.S. as a young boy.  He and his father were in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake and fire and took the ferry across to Oakland and never moved back.  The family legend is that my great grandfather and grandfather claimed to have been born in the U.S. saying that their records were lost.  By virtue of being “born” in the USA they were free to go back to China to visit, marry, and “have sons.”  My family brought sons and other “paper sons” … often relatives who would come as their “sons” back to the U.S. to work.    Having men working in America often meant the difference between life and death, survival or starvation.

 

Jean Quan is the first Asian American woman to be elected to the Oakland City Council.  She is the councilwoman for district #4.  She also participated in the founding of the Asian American Studies department at University of California, Berkeley.

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G.03.06

Ansel Adams

 

Due to, what he called, his ‘native hyperactivity’, Ansel Adams had a difficult time in traditional school.  His father took him out of school and made him participate in more non-traditional forms of education.  In 1915, the Panama Pacific International Exposition became Ansel’s school.  In Ansel Adams’ 1985 autobiography, he vividly recounts his time at the fair.

The exposition was large, complex, and astounding:  a confusion of multitudes of people, more than I had ever encountered, with conversations at excitement levels and innumerable things to see…in some respects it was a tawdry place, a glorious and obviously temporary stage set, a symbolic fantasy, and a dream world of color and style.

 

He also speculated the Palace of Fine Arts’ exhibits might have had on his art.

I made many visits to the painting and sculpture exhibits at the Palace of Fine Arts, where I saw work in the modern vein – Bonnard, Cézanne, Gauguin, Monet, Pissaro, Van Gogh.  They had little effect on me at the time, though I remember viewing them repeatedly.  I  now wonder what subconscious effect they had in the years to follow.

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H.02.04

Cathy Berumen

 

Cathy was only a child when the Loma Prieta struck the Bay Area.  She was in a car on the Cypress Freeway with her brother Julio, her mother, Petra, and a family friend.  Cathy and Julio survived but their mother and friend did not.  In an 1999 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Cathy admits for the first years after the quake she blamed herself for the death of her mother.  They were driving to her dental appointment when the freeway collapsed on them.  It took several years of therapy for her to overcome her guilt.  That process of recovery inspired her to get into the psychology field helping other children overcome trauma.  

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