Revised Nov. 2, 2002
Revised Nov. 2, 2002
Table of Contents:
On. Oct. 30, 1849, James, Bridget and the three girls left Sydney on the ship "Maria." They arrived in early 1850 in what must have been the middle of an El Niño winter. The dirt streets of The City were not so much muddy as swampy, and horses and mules were said to have sunk into the quagmire without a trace. The only way to cross the streets was by a subsurface crosswalk which would be made out of materials like bags of beans or damaged rice, bundles of tobacco, and whatever else happened to be lying around. San Franciscans used to like to watch their fellow citizens try (and often fail) to make it across the street without getting stuck in the mud; in extreme cases, they would have to mount a rescue party to free them. Newcomers like the Sullivans often got into their Sunday best to show themselves to their new home, only to ruin their fancy clothes and often lose their boots in the mud before getting far from the dock -- assuming they could get to the dock. There was only one small wharf at the time, and it was difficult to find people to crew the boats that went ashore. Often ship's crews deserted upon landing in San Francisco to go seek gold, and laborers ashore were extremely expensive. Some 500 ships were left at anchor in the Bay until their timber was salvaged for some land-locked purpose or they rotted away and sank.
The James Sullivan family was extremely unusual in that it was a family. In the year ending April 15, 1850, about 62,000 passengers arrived in San Francisco, but only 2,000, or about 3 percent, were women -- most of them prostitutes. Bridget by the mere fact of being a married woman was already socially above most of the women in her adopted city -- not that it would have mattered much if she weren't:
There was such a dearth of females in the San Francisco of gold-rush days that a woman was almost as rare a sight as an elephant, while a child was an even more unusual spectacle. It is doubtful if the so-called fair sex ever before or since received such adultation and homange anywhere in the United States; even prostitutes, ordinarily scorned and ostracized by their honest and respectable customers, were treated with an exaggerated deference. Men stood for hours watching the few children at play; and whenever a woman appeared on the street, business was practically suspended. She was followed through the town by an adoring crowd, while self-appointed committees marched ahead to clear the way and to protect her from the too boisterous salutations of the emotional miners.
Once while an important auction of city lots was in progress in a Montgovery Street building, a man poked his head into the auction room and shouted: 'Two ladies down by on the sidewalk!' The entire crowd immediately abandoned the auction and rushed into the street to watch the women pass. It is related they bared their heads in reverence, but that part of the story is probably the added touch of the incorrigible romancer. (Herbert Asbury, "The Barbary Coast," pp. 32-34.)
Did James intend to go to the mines? It's doubtful. He brought his own family and by that September had established himself in business as a partner in Sullivan and Secor, coopers, along with Theodore Secor. He probably did the right thing -- mining was risky both physically and financially, while half-decent carpenters were making $12 a day back then (astronomical wages for 1850, and roughly the equivalent of $960 in 1998 money). They did have to make that kind of money, for renting a room was $200 per month (let's say $5,000 in today's money) and apples were $1 apiece ($80).
The Sullivanfamily settled in a house at 535 Mission Street between First and Second, at the southwest corner of what used to be Sullivan Alley (since 1910 it has been called Shaw Alley). Their next four children were born here -- or at least at this location; fire was a constant danger in early San Francisco, and six major conflagrations are recorded between 1849 and 1852. The site was in the middle of the great fire that followed the 1906 earthquake. (Today, Golden Gate University faces Shaw Alley across Mission Street, and 535 Mission Street was occupied by a nondescript brick building in March 2002, last time I was there. The other end of Shaw Alley -- which is only a block long -- is occupied by a parking garage.)
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Created 20 Feb 1999 by Reunion, from Leister Productions, Inc. Revised January 10, 2003
