Charles Fernald: Guiding Light of Santa Barbara

NOTICIAS Journal Of The Santa Barbara Historical Museum No. 2

Vol. LII

Sr-.

I

Charles Fernald; Guiding Light of Santa Barbara

and author. Raised in California, he attended UCLA,UCLA Law School, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Cambridge University (Queen’s College). After 7HE AUTHOR; Alef is an novelist, syndicated and radio columnist, practicing law inDaniel Los Angeles foraward-winning more than twenty years during which he wrote a tax book and several legal and tax articles, he set out to write a novel. Ten years later Pale Ti~uth was published to excellent reviews in various periodicals including Publishers Weekly and the American Library Association’s Booklist. In 2000 ForeWordMagazine awarded PaleTfiithBook of the Year for general fiction, the award presented to Mr. Alef at Book Expo America.

Mr. Alef has written more than 250 biographical sketches of America’s great moguls, the men and women who have had a profound influence on our lives, the nation, and the world.

Today he lives in Santa Barbara with his family and serves as a trustee of the Santa Barbara His torical Museum. A black belt, he teaches judo in his spare time while mentoring students attending the University of California at Santa Barbara.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:There are volumes of material about Charles Fernald in correspondence files at the Gledhill Library of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum,the research library at the Museum of Ventura County, and the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, but the daunting task is to decode Fernald’s handwriting. Trying to unravel his correspondence is difficult at best, not because Fernald was a bad writer; he was not. but because his handwriting was atrocious and more difficult to discern than breaking a secret code. Thomas Bard’s biographer. W H. Hutchinson, trying to read Fernald’s letters, described the problem. "His handwriting, even when unhurried, resembled the tracks of an antic ant after total immersion in an inkwell." I agree!

All photographs are from the collection of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum unless noted otherwise.

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTORS: NOTiciAS is a joumal devoted to the study of the history of Santa Barbara County. Contributions of articles are welcome. Those authors whose articles are accepted for publication will receive ten gratis copies of the issue in which their article appears.

Further copies are available to the contributor at cost. The authority in matters of style is the University ofChicago Manual ofStyle, i^th edition. The Publications Committee reserves the right to return submitted manuscripts for required changes. Statements and opinions expressed in articles are the sole responsibility of the author.

Michael Redmon, Editor Judy Sutcliffe, Designer ® 20o7 The Santa Barbara Historical Museum 136 E. De la Guerra Street. Santa Barbara, California 93101 * Telephone: 805/966-1601 Single copies $7.95 ISSN 0581-5916

With vision and forethought,community leaders came together in 1932 to found a voluntary association. Their dream and mission—to foster a deeper understanding and study of the his tory of Santa Barbara; to collect, preserve, and hold in trust for the community the artifacts of that history; and to make that history available to everyone through programs of exhibition and education. In 2007, the Santa Barbara Historical Museum honored their gift of history and celebrated seventy-five years of excellence in its commitment to its mission.

It has been an exciting journey. With a modest beginning in a tower room of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, the Museum is now headquartered in a landmark 25,000 squarefoot. hacienda-style adobe building with exhibition galleries, research library, administrative offices, and collection storage vaults, which house well over 80,000 irreplaceable artifacts.

Today the Museum truly embodies the collective memory of our community and is a living tribute to the generosity of those who made, and continue to make, the dream a reality.

A monumental event in the Museum's history occurred in 1959 when the institution assumed stewardship of one of Santa Barbara’s most significant and treasured nineteenthcentury landmarks—T/ie Palms, the Hon. Charles Fernald Mansion. This exquisite Queen Anne Victorian was threatened with destruction until the Museum teamed with preservation advocate Pearl Chase and Santa Barbara News-Press publisher Thomas M.Storke to set in motion a campaign to raise the necessary funds to acquire the mansion and its priceless collections, and move it to its present location at 414 West Montecito Street. Now this historic house museum, with its splendid period furnishings and cherished Fernald family artifacts, serves as a rare window into a pivotal period in our community’s development.

When Charles Fernald arrived here in 1852 with few resources, the newly minted American city was in the grip of lawlessness. At the tender age of twenty-two, Fer nald took up the challenge of the office of county sheriff and, at the risk of life and limb, played a major role in bringing peace and stability to the streets of Santa Bar bara. He then proceeded to carve for himself a position as one of the community’s most prominent citizens: public administrator, jurist, community benefactor, civic booster and enduring family man. Upon his untimely death in 1892, he was eulo gized as a man of principle, probity, industry, and compassion; a visionary who cared deeply about his community and contributed to it in so many unselfish ways. Charles Fernald had become an American success story and an inspiring role model for us all.

I am delighted that Museum Trustee Daniel Alef, author of the historical novel Pale Truth and the weekly column,"Titans of Fortune” has written in this special issue of Noticias the biography of this extraordinary man. As I read his chronicle of Fernald’s achievements, I am put in mind of the true value of history. Meaningful history is not just a list of dates and events; it should have the power to guide and inspire us, to encourage us to persevere, to allow us to see that we have the ability to build a better tomorrow. That I believe is also the mission of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum—and our gift of history for generations to come.

Upon the foundation of the past, we build a future worth remembering.

David S.Bisol Executive Director Santa Barbara Historical Museum 1

Fernald House 'The drawing by I Icnry Ckdl:)man Ford is from Sanca Barbara and Around There by Edivards l^oberts, 1886.

CWrlcsJxrniilc) Ci^ht of Nestled between the Santa Ynez Moun tains and the Pacific

cito Street, a stone’s throw from Santa Barbara City Col lege. The move is a perfect metaphor for the city’s evolution from a Spanish pueb lo to a city prominent enough o to engender o its name on a televi

Ocean, just ninety miles northwest of Los Angeles. Santa Barbara draws visitors (rom all over the globe with its mix of cul tural sophistication, access to the wine

sion show seen by millions around the

country, wide sandy beaches, grand vis tas, whale watching, and the charm ol its

globe; a city steeped in a rich, multicul tural. and colorful

Spanish heritage. And right in the middle of this eclectic sceiie, where billionaires con

history, Fernald was no ordinary man; his accomplishments and successes were as diverse and as deeply rooted as Santa Barbara’s attractions.

verge with the hoi polloi, is the residence ol Charles Fernald, Santa Barbara’s first Yankee king.

Fernald's fourteen-room Queen Anncstyle Victorian mansion, Jhc Palms, an

Every city has one or a few prominent men who plant the seeds of growth and nurture the evolution of their burg into a modern metropolis and in Santa Barbara.

Fernald stands at or certainly near the top ol the pyramid, Fernald came Irom old Yankee stock.

eyeful of porches, balconies, and gables.”' was transplanted from its original lot on Santa Barbara Street to its current location on a quiet and shady corner ol Monce-

29

30

NOTICIAS

Although when in his prime he became a member of the National Association of Sons of the American Revolution, his

Fernald grew up in North Berwick where he attended public schools. Sum mers were short, dotted with hues of red,

roots go back nearly to the time of the Pilgrims, missing it by only three years.

Dr. Renald Fcrnauld, a native of Bristol,

yellow, blue, purple, and orange as the wildflowers burst open after their long winter’s nap. There were turtleheads, stceplebush, flat-topped white asters, and Canadian goldenrod, among others.

The forests were verdant and lush with

England, came to New Hampshire with Captain John Mason’s company in 1623 and subsequently settled at Kittery, Sir Ferdinand Gorges’Province of Maine.^ He was likely the first surgeon in the territory.

He acquired land and became a grantor of fifty acres of "glebe lands’’^ to church wardens, land that became the site of the city of Portsmouth in Fernald’s grandfather, Archelaus(pos sibly Hercules) Fernald, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, having fought at Dorchester Heights near Boston and attended the surrender of General John Burgoyne at Saratoga.

The family also owned an island at the mouth of the Piscataqua River, the river that serves as the border between Maine and New Hampshire. In 1806 the island was conveyed to the United States and be came part of what is now the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.' Known as the "Cradle of American Shipbuilding,” the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard opened in 1800 and is the oldest operational naval shipyard in the United States.*’ Born May 27,1830,in North Berwick, York County, Maine, Fernald was the second of four children born to Oliver and Olive Hurd Fernald. There was an older brother, Luther, and two presumably younger sisters, Miriam and Olive. How ever, Fernald’s mother died when Fernald was only ten months old. If the dates are correct, the girls must have been twins and Olive Hurd Fernald must have died shortly after their birth, possibly from the complications of giving birth, a tragic but commonplace occurrence at the time.

pine, birch, cedar, balsam firs, European larch, and hemlocks. A short, colorful fall heralded the coming of the long, cold, and freezing winter. Fernald’s playing ground, nearly ninety miles north of Portland, Maine, was an area of estuaries, islands, and an equal mix of water, craggy shores, forests, and open land.

When he was twelve, Fernald trans ferred to Great Falls, New Hampshire, where he studied with Professor Harrison Carroll Hobart. Hobart, a graduate of Dartmouth College, subsequently became a lawyer in Suffolk County.^ Upon gradu ation, Fernald decided to apply to West Point; a military profession beckoned.

"When everything was ready,” Fernald wrote father said 'NO.’ What a sad disappointment. I had set my heart upon it, and to surprise him, made all the ap plications myself and obtained a promise of admission.”*’ Fernald’s father pressured him to pursue a trade instead.*^ Fernald apprenticed to a printer and spent some time in a college in Dorchester, Massachusetts, but financial difficulties forced him to abandon his courses. With the military academy option foreclosed, Fernald turned to a different field of battle, law, where merciless litigants clashed like gladiators. He began his studies, probably in Boston, attending court sessions in the Supreme Court Room in Court Square, watching some of America’s greatest law yers, men like Rufus Choate, Benjamin C. Curtis, Daniel Webster, Ebeneezer Rock-

CHARLES FERNALD wood Hoar. Peter Chandler, and Samuel Hoar, plead eases bclorc judicial legend Lemuel Shaw." Perhaps Professor Hobart influenced Fernald to consider the law as a profession. It was at this time that Fernald met and became friends with Samuel Hoar's son, Edward Sherman Hoar, who

31 this discovery but did not believe a word of it. He headed to the sawmill certain the tacts would confirm his opinion, but when he discovered sold had indeed been found, he raced back to San Francisco and ran through the streets waving a bottle of sold dust and veiling. "Gold! Gold! Gold

Several factors congealed to compel Fernald to take the gamble and move to Calilornia, On the chilly morning of Janu ary 24, 1848. John Marshall spied some thing glittering in the tail race of a saw mill

from the American River!"'' Virtually the entire population ol San Francisco headed to the gold Helds—the Calilornia gold rush was on—and San Francisco resembled a ghost town. Brannan's news paper reported briefly. "Whole towns emptied as the inhabitants rush to the gold washings."''^ then ceased publica tion—its stall, too. had abandoned the

he was building on the American River.

"Boys." Marshall cold the Mormon labor ers helping him build the mill, "by God. I "12 believe 1 have found a gold mine.

Sam Brannan, the San Francisco pub lisher ol the Calijornia Star heard about

presses and joined the rush.

On December 5. 1848, in a message to Congress. President James Polk confirmed the discovery ol gold in Calilornia. "The accounts ol abundance ol gold arc of such an extraordinarv character as would

would play a role in Fcrnald’s decision to establish himself across the continent in the relatively obscure oasis of Santa Barbara, Calilornia,

'[rai'dingJrnmA’cu''\orl{to Cdlijnniia ivas not easy in i8^g. For Fcniald part ojthejourney included a trip on d hongo,similar to one pictured here, on the Chagres R/tvrm Fanama. Courtesy oj the author.

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NOTICIAS

32

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When ['cmald anived in San J'rancisco in the early sionmcr oj iS^g, the city had yet to jeel the jidl impact oJ the gold nt.s/i and ii.s accompa^iying pnpidation boom. Courtesy of the author.

scarcely command beliel were they not

was taking the identical route to Panama

corroborated by the authentic reports

intent on crossing the Isthmus instead ol

of officers in the public service." This

heading all the way around the tip of South

sparked a mass migration unprecedented

America with its dreaded and dangerous

in American history. By 1850 more than

Straits of Magellan.

There was no direct route across

90,000 people plied the oceans or crossed the continent bound for Calilornia; and by 1854 nearly one out ol every ninety Americans had made their way to the Far West. I,'.

Panama in 1849. The 'lahmawo arrived in Chagres. a squalid and desolate town on Panama's Atlantic seaboard, and Fcrnald boarded a bongo, a long dugout canoe

Dubbed "forty-niners" because they left

propelled upriver by long poles, and headed

in 1849, the departing gold-seekers laced an

up the Chagres River to the town ol Gor-

immediate problem; Calilornia was a long

gonna. From Gorgonna he headed by pack

way Irom home and the journey would be

mule to Panama City on the Pacitic side ol

a painful test of endurance,’'’ Fcrnald joined

the Isthmus. Insects, heat, humidity, bad

the lirst lorty-nincrs. On January 27,1849. he set sail for Calilornia from New York

drinking water, cholera, and Chagres lever were some of the risks he encountered,

aboard the ’lahmaroo. '^ ^ It was not the lirst

Panama City was swollen with a

ship bound for California. The Califoniia,

swarm of people bound lor California,

bursting at the scams with impatient pas

There were too many people, crowded into the few available facilities—hotels would

sengers, left New York on October 6, 1848, It reached the cast coast of Panama

hardly be an appropriate description—sul-

and disgorged its passengers live days al

lering from exhaustion, illness, and gold

ter Fcrnald’s ship Iclt New York. Fcrnald

lever, but with little prospect lor getting

CHARLES FERNALD CO California quickly: there were almost no vessels heading north.'"'

After an odyssey of six months, Fernald arrived in San Francisco. Most historical tracts claim he arrived on July 1 as a passenger on the United States Steamship Company steamer Oregon, or the same company’s Pcniama^''and bolted for the gold lields in the mining districts of Tuolumne. Calaveras, Sacramento, Yuba, and Butte; the exact location re mains unknown.-'^ The gold was there, but Fernald never lound much,extracting "less than it costs us to live.

After nearly a year and a half of fruitless labor he quit mining for gold and returned to San Francisco.

It was not the same town he had seen upon his arrival in July 1849, when the population was about five thousand. The

33 cicy in November oi 1850 had more than quadrupled in population, with wharves extending irom the shore, new streets sprouting seemingly out of the water between them as large steam engine jenny excavators carved and leveled hills to create building pads, and carts carried the earth to the bay. spilling their contents off the piers, The bay was dotted by a forest of more than a thousand masts, swaying in the strong winds chat swept San Francisco from the west. Some ol the ships were new arrivals, but many were abandoned and derelict—nearly 850 ships^- arrived in 1850 alone. Some ol the ships had become landlocked as the cicy 23 claimed the bay around them.

The tents and shanties of the previous year had totally disappeared irom the cen ter of town, while many ol the old frame

Fcnidld lost virtually all /le mcned in ikejire u-hich sxvept through San Francisco beginning May 4, iS^i.ThecitysuJferedfrom periodic conflagrations due to population grou'th,ramshackle constniction, and inadequate safety measures. Courtesy ofthe author.

NOTICIAS UlIS'wwi K«l.

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By the time Feniatd left San rmndsco in June the city had been tran.J'onned;in thci^pdceofjive years the popuLuion had grown jram around boo toover i=y,ooo. Courtes's of the author.

buildings chac had not been destroyed by lire were replaced by others ol a larger and stronger kind, il not by extensive tireprool brick structures.-'’ When Fcrnald had first seen San Francisco, it was disorganized with little government and even less order, run cssentially bv the military. On his return late in 1850 he found a city organized in the fashion of Tammany of New York; San Francisco was now rife with crime and corruption. Fcrnald took residence in a tent and to make ends meet he became a journalist and law reporter for two of San Francisco’s leading newspapers, the Alta California and the Adonwig Post. The legal business in San Francisco was booming and Fcrnald also continued w^ith his legal stud ies. intent on becoming a lawyer.

On May 4. 1851. the fif th fire to rav age San Francisco in eighteen months destroyed all his possessions, including the law library he was assembling. 2.000 volumes he had shipped from the East Coast, "a hideously expensive set of tools. The fire almost destroyed the city.

The entire business district was engulfed as the lire lumped from street to street in less than ten hours; eighteen blocks, with two thousand buildings, had burned.

Losses were estimated at $‘12,000,000. The fire had started at IhOO p.m. the previous c\'cning in a paint and upholstery store on the south side ol Portsmouth Square. The flames were so bright they were reportedly seen in Montcrcyd*' A month later, on June 22, another fire ravaged San Francisco, destroying fourteen blocks including the editorial oflices of the Alta California. The fire had erupted in a frame home on the north side of Pacific near Powell Street and eventually destroyed city hall at K.carny and Pacific streets and San Francisco’s redoubtable 27

Jenny Lind Theatre.

As if the fires were not enough, many of San Francisco’s merchants formed the Vigilance Committee ol 1851, took over the city, and hung several criminals summarily—some called it "the lynch law’’—in an effort to stop the crime wave engulfing the city. These events were discouraging, but Fcrnald borrow'cd some law books and remained in San Francisco long enough to "produce satisfactory testimonials of good moral character, and undergo a strict examination, in open court . . . by one of the Judges of the Su preme Court of this State," thereby gain ing admittance to the Calilornia bar.^*’ He

CHARLES FERNALD may have lived tor a cime with Joshua Norton, a wealthy banker who would later become famous in San Francisco as 29

Emperor Norton.

When Fcrnald ran out oi money, Charles E. Husc, an attorney Fcrnald had met in San Francisco but who had moved to Santa Barbara, sent Fcrnald a letter invitino him to visit Santa Barbara

35 lound grazing within the city. There were lew trees; Santa Barbara in 1852 bore little resemblance to the lush city it is today with its tree-lined streets and verdant gardens. As one writer put it, it was "one vast garbage dump and. in hot weather, smelled like one.

and arranged for Fcrnald’s passage on the steamer Fcrnald boarded the ship on June 30, 1852. Some historians suggest he was headed back home to Maine. but cn route the steamer stopped in Santa Barbara to discharge and take on new cargo, mail, and provisions. It is not known whether Fcrnald disembarked in Santa Barbara because ot Husc's invitation or. as some historians claim, to pay a short visit to his friends. Edward Sherman Hoar, whom he had known in Boston; Husc; and Augustus F. Hinchman, another attorney he had met in San Francisco.

Santa Barbara did not have a whari or dock and like all arriving passengers Irom vessels landing in Santa Barbara, Fcrnald had to make a quick dash through the surf to the shore. The temporary visit turned into a lorty-ycar layover. Fcrnald biographer Cameron Rogers noted. "The idea that he was to live out the forty re maining years ol his life in Santa Barbara town and county would have seemed to him fantastical."

Upon his arrival, Fcrnald lound Santa Barbara dominated by wealthy Calilornio families, living in a state ol patriarchal simplicity as owners of ranchos almost boundless in extent. The pueblo itself consisted ol crumbling adobes clustered on a semi-arid plain. "One early traveler commented that the town looked as il the adobe houses had been placed in a blunderbuss and sprayed over the landscape at random."^^ Cattle could be

Fcrnald lULs only tivcnCy-tuo ivhcn he took ujy the post nj sheriJJ in the rough'dnd-twnhU town of Santa Barham. This portrait teu-s drawn one year bejore the young man arrived in Santa Barba7-a.

Santa Barbara was also in the midst ol a major crime wave attributable to several bandits. The lawlessness terrorized many ollicials into resignation. Outlaws had murdered Jose Antonio Rodriguez, a member ol a shcrill’s posse. and George Heavey, a sheriff’s deputy, in an ambush in the Santa Ynez Valley. On the morning ol Fcrnald’s timely arrival. Judge Joaquin Carrillo had lired Sheriff Valentine W. Hcarnc tor allowing vigilantes into the jail to hang a prisoner.

Hoar, his Har\’ard-cducatcd triend Irom New England, was recovering in

NOTICIAS

36 Sanca Barbara from a hour of gold fever and had become die cown’s firsc discrict 37

attorney, Fcrnald found him meeting wich Hinchman. Santa Barbara’s current district attorney and several of che town’s prominent members; Russel Heath.

Eugene Lies, Nicholas Den, and perhaps Lewis Burton.^’’ Fcrnald also met Judge Joaquin Carrillo. Judge Carrillo was the first county judge and was elected district judge in 1852, serving for eleven years. He did not speak or understand English and all proceedings in his court were conducted entirely in Spanish. According co Charles Huse, Judge Carrillo "was a man of vast breadth of mind, and easily grasped and mastered the subtle and complicated eases."39 Ac Hoar’s suggestion, they invited Fcrnald to stay in Santa Barbara and assume the vacant office of sheriff.

No one is certain why Fcrnald. twentytwo. accepted this dangerous pose. The catalyst may have been the invitation he received from Huse. Possibly he was coo

ashamed co recurn co Maine with liede co show for die time spcnc in California. Serv ing as shcrilT may have appealed co him. and possibly che feeling of immorcalicy common co cwcncy-cwo-ycar-olds played a role in che decision, biic ic curned ouc co be a greac one for Fcrnald and even more so for Sanca Barbara.

Described as a "broad-shouldered young man o! medium heighc. wich cawny hair worn long as was chen che lashion. an undipped muscache of che same color bccwccn a generous buc uncompromis ing mouch and a nose scrongly aquiline, and blue-gray eyes bcneach a brow as yec unlined, Fcrnald was suiced for che badge. He was regarded as impcrcurbablc, Icarlcss, and courteous, buc wich a couch of cemper.

On August 10, 1852, Fcrnald was oflidally sworn in as county sheriff, a post he had now held for nearly two months without compensation. His jurisdiction, Sanca Barbara County, cxccndcd from

Santa Barbara looked much the same zvhen Femald arrived as it did in this

vieiv. 1 he Mission

may be seen high f»i the hill in the right bacl{ground. I'nmi Life in California by Alfred blpbinson.

CHARLES FERNALD

37 acccpcing die position of sheriff, cold the Spanish blue bloods chat, in spite ot his being a Yankee, this man Fcrnald was certainly worthy of respect and support. He had chat magic quality ot being simpdtico [ot like mind, temperament].

As an expression ot their high esteem, the important citizens ot Hispanic background living in and around Santa Barbara started rcterring to their good sheriff as Don Carlos, an indication chat he was one ot them.44

Fdloiv dltomcy, Charles F.. Fluse, ur^cd Femald to visit Santa Barbara and to stay once he arrived. I luse ivoidd become one oj Fdmald’s closestJriends.

San Luis Obispo County to San Ber nardino County.^' According to Husc, upon arrival Fcr nald "lived with me and slept in my room "42 . . . Ac that time 1 was County Clerk.

Husc. five years older chan Fcrnald. had graduated from Harvard in 1848, spoke Spanish, German, and Italian, and had already begun making his imprint on the 4.^ small pueblo.

According to Walker A. Tompkins, a Santa Barbara historian: The Carrillo and Dc la Guerra families, still the most powerful in Santa Barbara, took to Fcrnald immediately. The young Mainlandcr’s cultured airs and educated bearing, together with his

unquestionable

courage

in

Fcrnald quickly found himself at a distinct disadvantage against the lawless elements in the county. The town jail with walls ot adobe and a root ot tile was a place "where a prisoner was held more upon honor chan any merits of a jail as a place of forced detention. . .. A scout jack-knite would enable one to dig through the walls in half an hour. A favorite way with the Indians to open an adobe corral, and cake stock out, was to saw down the walls with a rawhide lariat, an Indian on each side ot the watl pulling the lariat to and fro.

Material support was nowhere to be found. He did not even have handcuffs tor his prisoners. San Francisco's police captain, George W. Casserly, ordered a pair of handcuffs for Fcrnald. celling his younger counterpart. "Thinking you might stand in need of them, 1 send them "46 as you desired.

On November 3, 1852, Fcrnald’s term as sheriff ended; he resigned after being elected as Santa Barbara’s district attor ney on a ballot chat also found Jose Maria Covarrubias sene to the state assembly.

Pablo dc la Guerra to the state senate, and Francisco dc la Guerra, to the county assessor’s office.

Fcrnald’s probity, judgment, and legal

NOTICIAS

38 abilicv muse have impressed members of the community because twenty days later, and after only live months in town.

District Judge Joaquin Carrillo appointed Fernald as one of the commissioners of the estate of Carlos Antonio Carrillo, a post equivalent to co-executor.'’' Given the Carrillo family’s stature in Santa Barbara, it was a critical appointment and reflected ultimate acceptance and ap proval ol Fernald by the Fiispanic popula tion; it paved the way lor Fcrnald’s rapid ascendancy to a preeminent position in Santa Barbara’s bar.

The close relationship between Husc and Fernald continued. According to Hiise he lent money to Fernald and on several occasions arranged for Fernald to attend court hearings or trials on behalf of his clients.''' However, in later years a gap would develop between the two men, the extent of which is open to speculation.

Husc returned to San Francisco as Santa Barbara’s assemblyman and his letters to Fernald reflect their friendship: Husc addressed the letters to "Charlie.” The letters ran the gamut from asking Fernald to determine how many sheep can be pur chased. and at what price, to getting title issued and recorded lor certain lots. One letter even asked Fernald to dun Hoar lor failing to pay Husc on a note.

Lawlessness was still rampant and endemic in Santa Barbara in 1852, with bandits roaming the hills, much as it was in the rest ol California. Ac a public meeting CO consider the issue of restoring law and order in the community, attended bv the elite of Santa Barbara, including Nicholas A. Den, Captain Samuel Barney. Lewis T. Burton. J. J. Sparks, Pablo dc la Guerra, Joaquin Carrillo and Henry S. Carnes, it was decided to offer the important position of county judge to Fernald.'’''^ The California Judiciary Act ol 1851

/

JoUijuin Cdnillo,jjnrtniit by Lcondrdn Barbieri, i8^o. Cdrnilo u'cjs a jwliticdl p(m\:r in Sdntd Bayhdm. When hevdCdtal the countyjudgeship in A/u>v/i 1855, I'enidid ivds dppointed to tdke liL'> place. Carrillo’s approval and acceptance of I'emald ivas an important factor in the latter’s acceptance by the community.

had established the California Supreme Court consisting of a chief justice and two

associate justices; eleven judicial districts, each with a district judge; and courts of sessions presided over by county judges (1 Linctioning much as superior and probate courts do today).

Since Joaquin Carrillo, an Hispanic, became county judge upon the lormation of Santa Barbara County in 1850. the more powerful post, district judge of the Second Judicial District (which included Santa Barbara), went to Henry A. Tefft, a non-Hispanic American. In late summer ol 1852, Tefft drowned coming ashore at Port Hartlord on his w'ay to San Luis Obispo, and California Governor John McDougall appointed Henry Storrs Carnes, a rabid

39

CHARLES FHRNALD anci-Hispanic. to Teffe’s vacant scat on the bench until the November election.

In November Joaquin Carrillo won the election as the district judge and \’acaced his former scat as county judge. Carnes as sumed he would be appointed to Carrillo’s vacated seat but on March 14. 1853, California’s new governor. John Bigler, appointed Fcrnald instead. Fernald was only cwcnty-chrcc years old. As judge ol the court of sessions, Fcrnald presided over criminal trials, civil cases, and the probate court."'' One of his first official acts was to appoint Russel Heath to the office ot district attorney.

Husc advised Fcrnald to appoint Carnes county treasurer and Fcrnald, having little knowledge of Carnes’ bigotry, made the appointment. Carnes later headed the Santa Barbara Mounted Rifles, whose declared purpose was to assist county authorities to maintain law and order, but whose real mission was to "so harass the native cle ment as to cause it to abandon lands and ●VS

belongings and quit the country.

Husc advised Fcrnald,"And now, Char lie, you and the District Judge must keep

a cighc rein upon chose chaps who have always disturbed the peace and cranquilicy ol the County. Show them no quarter w'hcn they violate the laws.’’’'’

Two months later Fernald’s legal authority, courage, and "right rein" were given the ultimate litmus test. The inci dent, known to historians as "The Arroyo Ikirro Affair." involved one ot the more colorful and celebrated characters in Santa Barbara’s history, ’’ Jack Powers was a bandit, a notorious killer with a charis matic personality and equestrian skills re puted to have been unrivaled, even by the best Californios- Some Californios identi fied with him, a kind of Robin Hood, The fact chat he had more proverbial notches lor murders chan any ocher bandit ot the time seems not to have tarnished his im age at all with a large segment of Santa Barbara's population.

While looking for seclusion lor his band of merry cutthroats. Powers settled on a pasture near town called Arroyo Burro. The land belonged to Nicholas A. Den. owner ol Rancho Los Dos Pueblos.

Like a normal businessman. Powers entered

7 he AquvTc adohe the site o/u dramatic slunuhnvn Ixtiveai the forces oj Lnc and order and the notorious bandit, 'lack Poicers, in u'hich County J' ud^e [ 'ernaid had his stovepipe hat shot of].

40 into a one-year lease for the property with Den, saying he was engaged in the hog trade.^ Perhaps he was, but when the lease expired, Powers held over and refused to budge, claiming squatters rights to the land. It is uncertain why Den, who had a similar encounter earlier with Powers in the Santa Yncz Valley and had dispatched his men to evict Powers, acquiesced to the new lease in the first place.

Den sued for ejection, and remarkably the case went up on appeal all the way to the California Supreme Court before he finally prevailed. Undeterred, Powers remained on the pasture as if he owned it.

Judge Fernald issued an order evicting Pow ers and ordered Sheriff W. W.Twist to eject him. The sheriff organized a posse of two hundred to serve the writ of ejectment, ordering the men to assemble at the Aguirre adobe on the morning of April 30, 1853.

Powers was not a fool. He knew a posse would be mustered and sent to evict him from Arroyo Burro, so at the narrow entrance to the pasture he built a barrier of trees and boulders to give his men a fighting chance to defend his stronghold.

Sheriff Twist was no fool either. He either anticipated Powers or had good intelligence of Powers’ movements, so he brought a small cannon from the plaza to blast a hole through Powers’ fortifications.

As the posse assembled that morn ing, two of Powers’ men rode into town.Mickey, a man whose last name has been forgotten to history and who might have been a bit sauced at the time, and John Vi dal, a local saloonkeeper and justice of the peace. When Mickey spied the cannon he pulled out his reata and lassoed the cannon as if it were a recalcitrant steer, yanking it off its gear.'"*^ Just as Fernald stepped out of the Aguirre adobe. Vidal pulled his gun and fired, the bullet passing through the judge’s

NOTICIAS stovepipe hat, barely missing Fernald’s exposed crown. Sheriff Twist drew his revolver and shot Vidal, who fell writhing in the road, mortally wounded. Mickey spurred his horse next to the sheriff and plunged his knife into the sheriff’s back.

Twist,superficially wounded,shot Mickey point blank, killing him instantly. Vidal died a few days later.

Fernald never wavered. He calmly handed the writ to Twist and told him to serve it on Powers. The end of this incident went off with a whimper, not a bang. It was a standoff, a stalemate between the law and Powers. There was no assault upon or breach of fortifications, and no fight ing took place; Den and Powers reached a negotiated compromise—just like business men. Strangely, Twist lost hisjob because Santa Barbarans were unhappy over the two deaths; Fernald. however, gained a stolid standing in the community for his coolness under fire.

Two weeks later Huse read mixed accounts of the battle in San Francisco newspapers. He wrote Fernald; From the published accounts we can learn nothing satisfactory as to the merits of the late difficulty... I have long been apprehensive that something of this kind would oc cur in your city—indeed, we have often conversed about it. . . .We have made application to General Hitchcock to station a Company of 20 or 25 men in Santa Barbara. We are confident that the presence of some force is absolutely necessary 58 to the preservation of order.

There is no evidence such a force was ever assembled or sent to Santa Barbara.

Fernald was reelected on September 7, 1853, to a four-year term as Santa Barbara

41

CHARLES I-ERNALD county judge, this time without opposition. The same result was repeated in 1857.

By 1854. Fcrnald’s reputation as a lawyer , had reached Sacra- g mento, the new capi- ^ tal of Caiitornia. and

various disputes over the extent of the city’s limits. "His ser\ vices to this City in t inally \ settling the title to and \ fixing the boundaries \ of its municipal lands, \ as successor to the '

Governor Bigler appointed him judge ad- ^ vocatc ot the Fourth h.

Di\asion ot the Cali- k lornia Militia. ' Unlike today, when judges are prohibited t rom practicing law while sitting on the bench, in the middle of the nineteenth century it was common; there were no conilict ot interest rules or ethical issues preventing a judge trom enjoying the financial truits ot a legal practice. Even Caiitornia Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field, later to become the longest serving justice on the U.S. Supreme Court bench, continued to represent clients while serving on California’s highest court, at times even arguing cases belore that court—presum ably he recused himsell and did not sit on the bench to hear his own arguments!

Fernald established a legal practice in Santa Barbara and began specializing in land matters. In September 1854 he was admitted to practice in the California Su preme Court. Like lawyers then and now.

Fernald had clients who questioned his lees.

Among the first, George M. Williams, a land holder in the county, had retained Fernald to draw up a deed. Fernald charged him twenty-five dollars, a lee Williams deemed excessive. Fernald told him, "Mr. Williams, that deed is good not lor years, not lor life, but good lor eternity,’’ and collected his lec.'^'’ He also helped Santa Barbara resolve

.

] ancient Pueblo of Santa Barbara by obtaining a patent thereior.(lour square / leagues) from the United States Land

department, the lirst patent ever issued to a Pueblo in this State, were ^ ot O arcat value to this citv / and its inhabitants. ’60 In one ot his lirst major land cases Fernald represented John C. Jones, owner of Santa Rosa Island. Jones had married Carlos Antonio Carrillo’s daughter, Manuela. In 1844 Carrillo sold Santa Rosa Island to Manuela and his other daughter, Maria Francisca, for ?;3.300.

Maria had married Alpheus B. Thompson and the two brothers-in-law began to quar rel over ownership ol the island. Moreover, the land commission denied their claim to the island.

Jones alleged Thompson failed to give him hall the proceeds from the sale of cattle and other stock on Santa Rosa despite his promise and agreement to do so. and Fernald brought an action against Thompson. The litigation continued until 1861 when Fernald achieved a major vic tory; the court ordered Thompson to pay Jones $90,000.

As his practice began to flourish. Fer-

ABOVF.: Another tocat luminary rvko aided Fctiiald in advancing his career ivas Pablo de

la Querra,judge,state senator, and lieutaiant governor.

42

NOTICIAS

nald displayed a growing sense of civic pride. Though he was not married and did not have any children, he was inscrumental with Charles Huse in founding Santa Barbara’s first school house in 1858 in a small brick building near the Congrega tional Church^' and continued to support 62 it for many years.

He also began to delve more seriously into his interest in horticulture. He was even cited by The State Register and %arBookqf Facts, "Tobacco of excellent quality has been grown here, and the Hon. Charles Fernald, our County Judge,is now engaged in gathering a most satisfactory experi mental crop of cotton. Fernald was also growing olives, walnuts and almonds.'’'* He was in the early throes of amassing a large portfolio of real estate holdings that would include, at its acme, interests in several ranchos including Cuyama, Cayeguas, Simi, Las Posas, and the Conejo.'^'* Dairy and beef herds followed.

Fernald may have had some misgivings about remaining in Santa Barbara during 1857. According to Huse, writing daily in his journal, Fernald had come to his office and the two men discussed prospects in Santa Barbara: We are agreed that Santa Barbara is not the place for us, that there is little opportunity for advancement in the law professions; that it lacks an established and cultivated soci ety and that we should not expect much change in the population, the methods or the customs; that the State of California does not offer advantages equal to those of the Eastern States... He is desirous as 66 am I, to leave this state.

But neither man left; both remained in Santa Barbara. Huse’s description of the

state of society and the future of the law profession may have had more impact on Hoar. He returned permanently to Boston in 1857 where he often "botanized” with Henry David Thoreau on long excursions to the White Mountains. 67 In 1860, Fernald sought a temporary leave from his judicial4uties to return to Maine to visit his family. Pablo de la Guerra,Santa Barbara’s first state senator, supported Fernald’s request and the legisla ture agreed to grant Fernald a five-month leave. Santa Barbara’s assemblyman, Eu gene Lies, wrote to Fernald, "Five months is not all you wanted, but it is all we dared ask for fear of objection. Anyway, you have 30 days more elbow room before they can vacate your office and, if they do, lam pretty sure that Pablo will have ”68 you re-nominated.

The resolution adopted by California’s legislature^® was unprecedented. The Sacramento Union attributed it to "the hold which Judge Fernald has upon the af fections of the people of his section. We are assured that the Honorable Senator in what he said, simply uttered the universal estimate placed upon the value of Judge Fernald's services by all who feel an interest in the well-being of Santa Barbara. Pablo de la Guerra acknowledged that"Fernald’s absence would be inconvenient for the people,” but advised the legislature that the citizens of Santa Barbara would rather submit to the inconvenience than suffer the alternative—Fernald’s resignation.

Although no record exists of the exact route Fernald followed upon his return to Maine, it is probable that he took the new and more expedient course across Panama—actually known at the time as Nueva Granada and later Columbia—by the five-year-old railroad from Panama City to the new city of Aspinwall(known today as Colon)on the Atlantic side, a dis-

CHARLES FERNALD

43 expensive rciilroad fare on Earth at chat time, and then continued his journey by traditional steamer back CO New York/^ While visiting his lather and tamily in Maine and New Hampshire he met and became enaaged to Hannah Hobbs,a woman whose pedigree went back further than Fcrnald’s—all the way to Plymouth Rock/^ She was also the niece ot the governor ol New Hampshire. Fernald was in love; a deep, committed love that would endure for the rest oi his life.

On June 21. while still back East, Fernald received an appointment to a newly tormed Road Commission with Jose dc Arnaz and Pablo de la Guerra. The Commission was

ranuild jell in love zvith andlm)posal to I lunnah I lill J lohhs zvhen he went hack lo J^ezv LingUind to visit jamily and friends in iHho.

tance of 47

miles. The Panama Railroad

Company completed its line in 1855 at a cost ot $7,000,000. making it the most expensive railroad ever built up to that time. The crack crossed 170 bridges (one spanning over 600 teec) with the summit grade at 258 teec above sea level. Between 1855 and 1869, the railroad transported tens ot thousands ot torcy-niners heading west CO the gold fields in California."'

Crossing the Isthmus cook one day, a tar cry from his prcx'ious pas.sagc by bongo and mule through the fetid and pestilent jungle, Fernald probably bought a firstclass ticket tor $25.00 one way. the most

charged with planning a new road for Santa Barbara County, to "intersect or run by the Salinas, or sal pond, cast of the town, Montccito, Carpintcria, Rincon, Punta Gorda, Canada Sauscs , Pitos, San Buenaventura, Pucrca la Somas, Las Posas, Canada dc Quimada, and Santa Susana, to the Los Angeles line. The north route to go to the San Luis Obispo County line,” Alter reviewing competitive bids the Commission awarded the contract to T. Wallace More, who agreed to build the road for $15,000,^-'’ a remarkably difficult undertaking, over an extended range, for a remarkably small sum ot money. It is unclear irom the records whether Fernald did his work by correspondence from the East, or whether some ol the bidding and awarding ot the contract cook place after he returned.

With the Civil War looming. Fernald returned to California committed to the 1 ight against slavery and expressed a forcctul interest in becoming a Republican. He had been a Democrat, though Husc believed

NOTICIAS

44

it was in name only, wricing,'' He has 76 all the principles ot a erne Whig.

To Hannah, Fernald revealed his political intentions: Pray, give me a reason tor being so strong a Republican, and for liking politics. . . . I do not doubt you can give me many reasons and good ones, too, for being a Republican. I believe slavery to be essentially wrong and evil.

So do you. The Republicans arc opposed to slavery —so am 1 Freedom is a thrilling word, especially dear to us ot America, and it is something more than a mere word—it is a living princi pal . . . It addresses itscll to the noblest impulses and aspirations of our nature. Certainly, one should be his own master, own himself. How strong one becomes by being on the right side. I don’t wonder you arc a Republican, my dear. How could you with your amiable and sympathetic disposi tion. be otherwise. The idea of "property” in living tissue . . . is monstrous.77

Charles Fernald, shortly after his engagement, i860. By this time he ivas one ojSanta Barbara’s most prominent citizens having held a number oj judicial and administrative posts in addition to building a thriving law practice.

The California wing of the Republican Party had been tormed in 1856 by E. B. Crocker and the Big Four; railroad kings Lcland Stanford, C. P. Huntington, E.B.’s younger brother Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins. Although the Re publican Party’s tirst presidential candi date, John C. Fremont, failed to win the election of 1856, their second candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was deep in the run ning for the presidency in 1860, the elec tion only six weeks away when Fernald arrived in California on August 23.

CHARLES FERNALD

45

Perhaps Fernald had not become a member ofthe California Republican Party in 1856 because its presidential nominee was John C. Fremont, a man Fernald did not find endearing. "He is not a military leader.” Fernald wrote. "Especially is he a blundering man in everything.”

Fernald acknowledged that Fremont was a "pathfinder, explorer, learned, brave, and skillful in war. Never lived a man so

to reproach myself that 1 did not implore you more, persuade, tell you more. . . . Oh! if you were here with me now, if I could feel your presence, hear your step, or the rustle of your dress near me, ah!

What a joy!”

"On Monday, I visited Sac ramento City, the capital of our State, on business. I dined with

misunderstood. Brave, he certainly is . . . he won’t run from an enemy.” But Fernald went on to call him the "veriest coward”

the Governor and a select party of friends who took the opportunity to rally and berate me for coming to California alone. Afterwards, 1

and a man "afraid of scandal and public opinion . . . He is the dupe and has been for years, of some half score of the most notorious and consummate knaves to be found in any country. His judgment in military affairs is very slender - he is a very plain man in appearance and in manners, kind, agreeable, and good natured - slow and deliberative which with some passes for wisdom.”'^ Fernald set about filling a gaping hole in Santa Barbara politics, forming the Republican Party of Santa Barbara and serving as its first chairman. With the sup port of the Carrillos and the de la Guerras, Fernald aggressively stumped for Lincoln and the Union.

He did not ignore his own interests, sending a letter to Governor John G. Downey expressing his desire to retain his office as county judge despite having been back East for more than six months. The governor replied,"I think they[fellow citi zens of Santa Barbara] are but too happy to have you for Judge and would be slow to ●V9 have your office declared vacant Most of all, however, he missed Hannah terribly: Arrived here on the morning of the 23"' . . . but how sick of heart for you, dear Hannah. I never cease

was obliged to tell him something more, but I was very discreet -1 did not mention your name, my dear.

A letter I found on my arrival here from him (the Governor] is very funny on the topic. He expected to see somebody, you see. . . . I do not wake nor sleep without feeling that 80 I am in your presence.

In his determination to return East to marry his fiancee and provide her with a suitable lifestyle upon their return to Santa Barbara, Fernald declined a third term as county judge, retiring from the' bench at age thirty-one, despite a resolution adopted by both houses of the legislature offering him another leave of absence.®* The $1,500 annual salary of a county judge was simply not enough as he told Hannah: You are surprised a little, seeing that 1 had leave of absence. Well, it was very unusual indeed. There was no precedent for it in this State . . . 1 thought it would be more magnanimous to resign . . .1 was offered a retainer of $3,000 a year by a resident here . . . I accepted it, and have been very busy with his affairs since, else 1 should have

NOTICIAS

46 been with you . . . I think I shall be able to save him. Besides, darling, I must go either up or down. I can not remain stationary at this time of life. I held the office eight years and more. I should earn more money than the salary afforded—$1,500 per annum.82 With the respect he had won as sheriff and judge, his private practice became his principal focus and the retainer he referred to in his letter to Hannah came from Antonio Arellanes who was immediately followed to Fernald’s law office by clients such as the Carrillos, de la Guerras and

action after action for slander of title, to set aside leases on grounds of fraud, to quiet title and so on, that "land-grabbing" which for a time threatened nearly every large land owner in Southern California.

He became the scourge of the "titlesharps,” the sinister gentry who, in the fifties and sixties, suddenly made their appearance in schools, like sharks or barracuda. .

Business was booming and Fernald was forced to postpone his departure and his marriage, a delay he suffered dejectedly.

their congeners.

Congress had established the Califor nia Land Commission to adjudicate the validity of Mexican land grants. The commission’s ruling was appealable to the federal courts. First convened in 1852, the commission had received more than

Now, dear Hannah, I beseech you in the name of all you hold dear to forgive me for the disappointment I have caused you in not going on this month. I intended to .. . and I have suffered much to see that I could not. I have a new set of clients, and

eight hundred petitions in ten years, but fewer than fifty were granted. Nearly all the rejected applicants filed their appeals, many ultimately winning the suits, but losing their lands, unable to pay the legal fees incurred in the process.

Santa Barbara’s leading families were deeply embroiled in this litigation. They were most concerned with their ability to retain ownership of their Mexican land grants. Although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) between the Mexican and American governments guaranteed these rights, they were now at the mercy of the American judicial system. Boundary disputes and squatter settlements quickly forced Santa Barbara’s Californios to turn to Fernald for assistance.

this business is all mixed up and it has been impossible to abandon it.

I will explain all to you before I am much older. I may come sooner, but 84 in September for sure.

Pre-eminent in the peculiar litigation arising out of Mexican land grants, he detected behind

Although he intended to leave for the East at an earlier time, Fernald could not. Writing again in September, he told Hannah: Forgive me for keeping you waiting so long—it will not be much longer. . . . The business of clients, alone keeps me. This is the worst place in the world, now,to arrange compli cated business matters. I could not, perhaps, if I should try, explain how difficult it is. I think, however,there 8.4

are signs of dawn.

The signs of dawn Fernald saw were

47

CHARLES FERNALD misleading. With a flourishing legal prac tice,®^ and its inexorable demand on his time, the year passed quickly. However, getting work done during the exceptionally wet winter of 1861-2 must have been dif ficult at best. The "Big Deluge” pounding Santa Barbara even altered the topography of the land. State Street became a river of mud; decrepit Spanish-era adobes "melted like ice cubes” and the lower eastsidc be came a vast inland sea, as rain continued to fall for weeks on end. With nearly every bridge within the county destroyed, over land travel was nearly impossible.

Tine election that took place in 1861 was another matter occupying Fernald’s attention, but from a legal perspective. It was contested on several fronts. One of Fernald’s clients, Cyrus Marshall, sought to prevent Jose Maria Covarrubias from taking his scat as county judge, claiming Covarrubias was not a U.S. citizen. The Board of Supervisors, composed of Felipe Puig, Caspar Oreha and Juan Rodriguez, ordered Marshall and Covarrubias to ap pear at a special meeting of the board to iron out the conflict. Fernald objected to Oreha’s presence since he was related to Covarrubias. The objection was overruled.

Fernald next asked for a decree annulling 87 the election. It, too, was rejected.

It was a constitutional issue, one that should have been presented to the district court, but instead languished in the most unusual of forums, the County Board of Supervisors. Fernald questioned whether Covarrubius had been a naturalized citi zen of Mexico and a California resident at the time that the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded California to the U.S.®® Covarrubius claimed his rights of citizen ship from having worked for Governor Alvarado. Fernald then challenged the status of Governor Alvarado, claiming Alvarado became governor of Alta Cali-

fornia by revolution. After several days of testimony and numerous witnesses, the result was a foregone conclusion and one wonders why Marshall and Fernald tilted at that windmill for so long, or even at all.

Covarrubius retained the seat he had won 89

fairly in the election.

Fernald began making plans for the wedding early in 1862, even sending Hannah a wedding wreath and bouquet.

Unfortunately they were lost in transit.

"How sorry 1 am, darling,” he said, "that the wedding wreath and bouquet went astray.

I am very sorry, darling, but I will try to find another . . . We must have orange flowers, darling. . . .1 have been very much occupied all winter and I am now.thank heaven, seeing my way clear to leave in a very short time. You have read of the heavy rain, the rising and overflowing of the rivers, and the destruction of property. Since I last wrote, however, the rivers have again swelled higher than ever and we read of many sad and distress ing deaths by drowning Such an amount of perplexing business as 1 have had to transact during the past two months. Oh! What a place to do business in. . . .We have, as I told you in my last, a battalion of volunteers here, and their afternoon parades and drills are quite a feature in Santa Barbara life. Give much love to your good mother. Forever yours—Charles ^ One of the legal matters occupying Fernald’s attention arose from his work on the old Road Commission. More than a year after receiving a contract to build the road through the county,T. W.More

NOTICIAS

48 was unable co complete the project in accordance with his aarcemenc with O the County of Santa Barbara, and the County retained Fernald to file a law suit against him in the district court.

Fernald’s legal fee was payable $300 down, s^'300 at the conclusion ol the trial, and an additional $200 il the matter was appealed by either party/*' Finally, in the summer of 1862, Fernald was able to make his way back to Maine and on August 7 married Flannah. The wedding and reception were simple affairs, held in the home of the bride’s parents and attended by a small gathering of family and intimate Iriends. The bride's uncle. Daniel R. Goodwin, Presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S. and Chan cellor oi the University ot Pennsylvania, officiated.'*^To Hannah. Fernald was a knight in shining armor, a man who would love her unconditionally. To her friend Charlotte Haines, Hannah wrote: 1 am delighted . , . that you approve ot my choice. 1 assure you I feel

perfectly satisfied myscll. I have got such a dear. good. kind, loving husband. It would be impossible to tell you how very dearly 1 am loved and cared for. . . .It seems as though he cannot do enough for me, and he is trulv cTood and noble . . .93 / O The following day Fernald presented Hannah with a special wedding gift: a deed 94 to Block 247 in the City of Santa Barbara.

This would become the site of their future home; it w^as an affirmation of his prom ise to recreate for Hannah a genteel New^ England lilcstylc in the sleepy and remote pueblo of Santa Barbara, Fernald’s gift, placing the deed in Hannah’s name, was unusual; the deeds to most properties in California, indeed throughout the nation, were typically held in the husband’s name.

"The . . .purpose of the gift." Fernald acknow’ledged, "was to secure to my said w'ilc ... a residence and homestead entirely separate and apart from all other property w'hich I might thereafter acquire.’"''

With the Civil War raging, Fernald and his bride set sail for California on

The ddohe home of Lcivis Burton tvhei'e the nczvLyzved Ternald.'y stayed for time after their return to Santa Barbara.

49

CHARLES FERNALD August 11. They were armed with a letter from the Boston Chief of Police to help ease their way through military check points: The bearer. Judge Fernald of Santa Barbara, California and a resident of that place is in the Atlantic States on business and is now on his return home with his wife ... and this cer tificate is to save them from deten tion in New York if possible as they desire to go on the steamer which leaves New York for California via Aspinwell on Monday the eleventh instant.

-Respectfully J.L.C. Armee^^ Their return voyage, lasting one month, was rather enjoyable and free of cares. Hannah quickly found her sea legs, making the passage considerably easier even in inclement conditions.

I am having such a pleasant passage.

I have not been seasick at all —isn't it quite wonderful that 1 should not have been? On Saturday it was quite rough, and the way some of the passengers paid tribute to Old Neptune was dreadful. Some of the ladies have been sick nearly all of the time and look almost now as though they were just gone of consumption. ...1 think some of them would quite rejoice if I were [seasick], for you 97 know misery loves company.

They arrived in San Francisco on September 10 and quickly made the south bound journey to Santa Barbara. Fernald and Hannah had to be rowed from the boat to the beach where the chivalrous new husband carried his bride ashore in his arms through the breakers, instead of carrying

her across the more traditional transom.

They soon began purchasing furnish ings for their future home, including a Victorian Greek Revival-style walnut parlor suite consisting of a sofa, two arm chairs, an elaborate game table, and four side chairs.

In Santa Barbara, the newlyweds were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Burton in their adobe home on Burton’s Mound, site of the future Potter Hotel, fronting the waterfront at West Beach. Fernald re corded Hannah’s deed on September 30 and construction of their residence. Vie Palms, at 422 Santa Barbara Street, began.

The original house was built on a slight elevation. The contractor and builder was Roswell Forbush, an American cabinetmaker who came to Santa Barbara in pueblo days. The artistry of the cabinet maker, in carving the doors, the panels, wainscoting, lintels, and other hand-hewn decorations inside and outside the [mansion] gives it 100 special distinction.

For a while Fernald and Hannah lived in an adobe on Figueroa Street and later temporarily moved to the residence of Captain M. M. Kimberly on lower State Street until their home was completed in 1864.“^* On May 1,1863,Beatrice, the Fernalds’ first child was born. Her godmother was Maria Antonia Orena, daughter of Jose de la Guerra y Noriega and sister of Pablo de la Guerra. As Beatrice Fernald’s madrina, she was bestowed the honor of holding the infant over the baptismal font in Our Lady of Sorrows Church while the Jesuit priest delivered the sacrament.*"^ Although not of the Catholic faith, the Fernalds felt the ritual was important enough to proceed;

NOTICIAS

50 there was no Procc.scanc otHdate available in the dty.

While on

business trip to San Francisco in September, and to celebrate the birth of Beatrice, Fernald purchased a magnificent English brass canopied nursery bed. copped with a crow'n. He wrote to Hannah: 1 enclose the bills ol the things you will get by the [steamship] "Sena tor." and you have Amy to get Streeter to put the bed together properly. How is darling baby? 1 hope to hear from vou today, but could not find a letter at the office.

Do take care of yourself, darling, and kiss the baby ten thousand times—she is coo good and sweet, 10.^ the same as her darling mama.

His legal practice and Irequent business trips kept him quite busy, yet Fcrnald loLind the time to engage in civic matters.

He was Secretary ol the Relicl Commit' tec. charged with soliciting donations to help aid the poor and destitute in Santa Barbara County, many ol them Hispanic.

"By December 1864 Santa Barbara w'as in its third year ol the Great Drought. The livestock on the ranchos were rapidly declining, leaving the ranching lamilics without income, the vaqueros with no work, farmers (completely dependent on rain) with no crops and Held laborers with no work.

Moreover, at the beginning ol the Civil

The Palms, ihc FcniaLl home at gii Santa Barbara Street, iSy^. 7 he house ztvuld undergo extensive remodeling and enlargement in ensidng decades.

CHAllLIHS FERNALD

51

War.the Uiiiccd Scares wichdrew all Army croops from the Wese, leaving only local militia and volunteers to defend the fron tier. Nearly 17,000 Calitornia Volunteers occupied more chan a million square miles ol territory for nearly four years. They were a critical force in keeping Calilornia pare ol the Union and in maincafniiig the flow of gold to help Washington fund the war.l.-n Fcrnald sought help from Antonio Maria dc la Guerra, Captain of Company C of the Battalion of Native California Cas'alry, stationed at Drum Barracks at Wilmington. California. . . . 1 pray you to remember chat these sulferers are the people of your own race. . . who so recently gathered around you with tearful eyes to cheer you as[you] marched away from your old home. It is not known chat a single dollar has been received from your men by their lamilics or friends here. Permit me. therefore, in the name of the

renidld'.s

icith

the petroleum

industry und the railroad question in Calijnrnia began ichen raitwad haron and oil entrepreneur, 7 homas /Mexander Scott, began to expand his operations into the slate. Courtesy oj the author.

committee to ask you to use your command to secure as much of the earnings ol your men as can possi bly be spared to their families. I crust you will be much honored in your new and patriotic career of serving U'W our Hag and country. . . .

Supplies were collected from as far away as San Francisco bend icing nearly four hundred people, including the lamilics left behind by chose Santa Barbarans who had joined the U.S, Army to support the Union.

In 1865 California was experiencing a new o odd rush, this time for black o gold— oil. Six years earlier, on August 27. 1859.

Edwin Drake disco\’crcd oil after drilling well near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Thomas Alexander Scott, the railroad titan

from

Pennsylvania

and

later

president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the largest railroad operation under single manag;emenc in the nation,"^' formed the Columbia Oil Company with one of his underlings, a lellow he called, "My whitehaired Scotch devil," That underling was destined to become one of America's greatest titans.

Andrew Carnegie, Columbia made a bundle for Scott and Carnegie, and now Scott was seeking oil lands in California. Levi Parsons, a man with more shades, angles, and corners than a funhouse full of mirrors, pressed Scott to invest in Calilornia and Fcrnald offered to show Parsons some oil lands.

NOTICIAS

52 Scocc scnc his assiscanc. Thomas Bard, a man Scott trusted implicitly, to Santa Barbara. Bard, who would become Fernald’s best Iriend. business associate, and most important client, arrived in Santa Barbara aboard the steamer Saiator, carried ashore through the surf piggyback, and "sequestered at once and for several days in Fcrnald’s home, , , The need lor secrecy stemmed from Santa Barbara’s virulent attack of oil lever, which had blanketed the county with ’Petroleum and Asphaltum Mining districts’ patterned after the sell-governing mining districts that had evolved on the Mother Lode during the Gold Rush. The town teemed with speculative seekers, and it it became known that TA. Scott’s representative were about, his lootsteps would be dogged wherever he went.’" 108 Bard was eleven years younger than Fcrnald and shared Fernald’s interest in horticulture and a loathing for keeping accounts. They also shared something else, something more important and with deeper roots—a likeness in character and social and political vision. Both men were ethical and strong-willed. The connection between the two was nearly instantaneous.

T. A. Scott was legally represented in Calitoriiia by Huse. but Huse had not been informed ol Bard's arrival in Santa Barbara, an omission that might have driven a wedge between Huse and Fernald and suggests that Scott might have mistrusted Huse or lacked confidence in Huse's legal ability or character.

Bard biographer W. H. Hutchinson noted."Skippingoutol town bctorcdawn one morning, Pard and Fcrnald spent almost a week on horseback with a pack outfit examining potential oil lands be tween Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, whereon the Lompoc, Cat Canyon, and

Thomas Bard, u'ho came to Santa Barham in iHh^ a.s 7, A. Scott’s relnvscntativc, became a le^al client and hnsiness associate oj I 'eniald’s as icelt as a close Iriend.

Santa Maria Helds would burgeon durino Izard’s liletimc. 110 Interestingly, in March 1866, Huse petitioned President Andrew Johnson to appoint Fcrnald to a vacancy created in the Southern District of the U.S. District Court and got some ol the most inllucntial citizens ol Santa Barbara to back the petition including Pablo dc la Guerra, who was. at the time, district judge; F. J. Magu ire, the county judge; Romualdo Pacheco; J. J. Boycc; Thomas B. Dibblcc; and W. W. Hollister, Whether Huse drafted the petition to support Fcrnald because he believed Fernald would be the best man lor the job. or to find a way to sequester Fcrnald away Irom T. A. Scott- -thereby removing Fcrnald as Scott’s legal advi sor—or simply to regain Fcrnald’s friend ship. conlidcncc and good graces, or all ol the above, is open to speculation.

These were halcyon days for Fcrnald

CHARLES FERNALD and Hannah. His legal practice provided a steady source ol income, his business pur suits and land acquisitions w'crc progressing steadily, and at home contentment turned to expectation with Hannah’s pregnancy.

On Mav 20. 1866, Hannah gave birth to a second daughter. Edith Eliot, whose middle name honored Sarah Eliot Goodwin Hobbs, Hannah’s mother.

President Andrew Johnson did not ap point Fcrnald to the district court. Fernald continued to practice law, one ol a handtul ot lawyers in Santa Barbara,'" On Bard’s recommendation Fcrnald ot 1 icially replaced Husc as the attorney tor T. A. Scott’s prin cipal company in Calitornia. the Calitornia Oil Company,"^ What impact this deci sion had on the relationship between Husc and Fcrnald is unknow'n; however they continued to enter into various business transactions together.

On April 3, 1868, Fcrnald and Hannah introduced a third addition to their grow'-

53 ing family, daughter Florence Hermione, alTccdonaccly known as "Flossie.” Ic docs not appear that Fcrnald was appalled or chagrined at being surrounded by an alltcmalc cast at IhePalms. On the contrary, he was delighted.

That year Fcrnald was the principal toundcr ol the Santa Ynez Turnpike Road Company, a graded toll road between Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez over San Marcos Pass, which allowed a stagecoach to make the six-mile ascent to the sum mit in an hour without changing horses!

Other investors included Dr. Samuel B. Brinkcrhol 1. Thomas Bell of San Francisco (one ot the developers ot the Los Alamos Valley), Husc, Dr. James L. Ord (son-inlaw ol the late Jose dc la Guerra) and Dr. James B. Shaw,owner ol the huge Rancho La Laguna in central Santa Barbara Countv and with Bell, co-dcvclopcr ot the town ot Los Alamos."-’’'-* As T.A. Scott’s land acquisitions and

As a ivimui-yfounder oj the Santa Fnez'/umpire Company, Fcrnald uxinlcd to improve stagecoach travel, xchich coidd often he dijficult, in Santa Barbara County. I lere a stage traverses the portion of San A larcos Pass hnoum as Slippe}-y l\ocl{.

54 oil interests multiplied in California, Bard realized Fernald, an expert in California land law. lacked sufficient experience or knowledge of Pennsylvania law to ad equately represent Scott’s growing Califor nia empire or manage all his legal affairs.

Coordinating Scott’s California interests with his Pennsylvania operations was es sential. Scott even maintained the books and records of his California enterprises at his office in Pennsylvania. Accordingly Bard invited a boyhood friend. Jarrett T. Richards, a young attorney with knowl edge of Pennsylvania law, to come to Cali fornia and join Fernald as a junior partner in Fernald’s legal practice.“’Richards had been suffering from ill health and regarded the move to California as regenerative, recuperative, and remunerative. Unfortu nately. Santa Barbara would not bestow all the rewards Richards was seeking.

Before their arrival in Santa Barbara in late 1862, Fernald had warned Hannah, a New England Episcopalian, that she would find the existing ecclesiastical facilities not to her liking. Not to be outdone by her husband’s civic-mindedness. Hannah set about redressing this deficiency. Work ing with other women, Hannah founded Trinity Church, the first Episcopal church in Santa Barbara.*'^ Located on Gutierrez Street, between State and Anacapa streets, it was one block from T/ie Palms. Bishop William Kip of California, a guest of the Fernalds, consecrated the church and, in the pulpit. Dr. Abercrombie announced that debts incurred in building the edifice 117 had been paid in full.

It is unknown whether Fernald sought the appointment, but once again,in March of 1870, members of the Santa Barbara bar petitioned the president to nominate Fernald to the district court, this time addressed to President Ulysses S. Grant.

Drafted by Jarrett T. Richards and signed

NOTICIAS by nineteen people, including Pablo de la Guerra, Romualdo Pacheco, F. J. Magu ire, Thomas B. Dibblee, and Huse, the petition proved no more effective than previous efforts. Even a separate letter urging Congressman Cornelius Cole to lobby the President failed to produce the desired result.

Earlier that year, on January 5, a rainy and stormy day that served as a perfect metaphor for the storm of controversy about to be unleashed in the county over railroad rights, citizens of Santa Barbara met at the county courthouse to consider the feasibility of constructing a railroad through the county to connect Santa Bar bara with San Francisco via the Southern Pacific Railroad. Fernald, with Thomas Dibblee and Dr. Brinkerhoff, drafted resolutions supporting an offer by major landholders to grant property rights over their land for the railroad. Fernald. Bard, and Brinkerhoff were delegated to meet with Southern Pacific.*'*’ This initial and peaceful union of landholders would dis integrate into hostility and conflict in the coming years, pitting Fernald, Bard, and Scott against some of Santa Barbara’s most powerful grandees.

Fernald and Bard faced another prob lem. Landholders, including T.A. Scott, given the immensity of their holdings and the history of the huge ranchos held by Californios prior to California’s annexa tion to the Union, discovered their lands were ripe for squatters seeking their place in the sun, and squatters flooded the state to plant their roots on the vast spreads.

Few landowners were exempt, and Scott was no different. The squatters presented major political considerations in elections because practical, vote-minded politicians could hardly ignore the vast numbers of squatters or their political influence.

The squatter problem reflected itself

55

CHARLES FERNALD our dear friend’s name erased co the number of 60 or 70 and Kincaid’s name written-in in the handwriting of Huse. Ramon Hill. Oreha.Juan dc la Guerra, the whole Whiskey Ring in addition indiscriminately. Ramon Hill changed at least 30 votes for 120 Kincaid [Richards’ opponent}.

Tliis event reflected some estrangement bct\\'cen Huse and Fcrnald. They were ap pearing more f rcquently on opposing sides of issues, yet they continued to do business with each other.

Fcrnald was not immune to resentment

'lanvtt '[. Richardsjoined FemuH's laiv[vacticc at the behest nj 7 homas Bard. I'ernald and liichards enjoyed many years as partners and jric7ids, then had u jailing out, hejnre reconciling in iSSj.

in several ways. Obviously the question ol title CO the land was paramount and resulted in considerable litigation, but there were other impacts. When Bard pressed Richards co run for oil ice as Santa Barbara’s district attorney, Fcrnald gave his unqualified support. But squat ter politics came into play; Richards, a Bard and Fcrnald man, sullcrcd a stinging defeat, not so much as a result ol voting, but as a result of the manner in which

and anger; he was not always calm and imperturbable. His equanimity was often tested in testy litigation. Retained by the clerk ol the district court to respond to charges of misappropriation of county funds—District Judge Pablo dc la Guerra was also charged—Fcrnald nearly came to blows w'ith District Attorney William T. Williams as they appeared before County Judge Maguire.

Fcrnald claimed the whole issue was a sham and chat no defalcation had taken place.Judge Maguire agreed and discharged the defendant. Fcrnald said, "Thank God! ”121

Justice at last.

According to the Suntd /3arham limes the following exchange clien cook place: DA Williams; ’’Well. 1 presume this don't prevent the next Grand Jury from opening the matter?"

many ol the voces ended up in the ballot box—stuffed-and the consequent count.

Fcrnald was furious.

Judge Maguire: "Mr. District Accorncy, you will please not interrupt me until 1 have linished my notes."

1 am racked by emotions ol rc.scncmcnc and anger. 1 am sorry to say, for never was there such perfidy and ingratitude even here. . . You will see Republican tickets with

DA Williams: "1 presume you won't place an injunction on the next Grand Jury's caking up the case?"

Fcrnald;

I except CO this kind ol interruption from coun.sel."

NOTICIAS

56 DA Williams; "You can except as much as you please under the protection of the court, but you can’t go outside and except.”

Fernald (demonstratively): "You may be a big man, Mr. Williams.”(Here Sheriff Porter seized Mr. Williams, who was approaching Fernald. who also appeared belligerent. Judge Maguire called Williams to order without avail, and the Sheriff tried to push him into a chair.)

DA to Sheriff: "Why not sieze [sic) him (pointing to Fernald). He raised his cane to strike me.”

Judge Maguire: "Mr. Williams, you are not now before a Justice of the Peace.

I order you to keep the peace, or I will place you under arrest.”

Mr. Williams insisted on the other man being taken into custody too, referring to Fernald.

Deputy Sheriff Ames; "I have him in ”122 charge; he’s all right.

The Times concluded the, "whole affair seemed to involve but $192, the most of which Frank A. Thompson [the clerk) had dropped into his pocket without giving it further thought.”

Although Fernald did not seem to judge people by the color of their skin, their place of origin, or their social status, he did measure people by their character, comparing them often to Shakespearean characters. In a letter to Hannah he noted: . . . Republican leaders would be wise enough to become moderate and conservative like Mr. Seward, content with victory instead of abandoning themselves to silly

and inordinate boatsint, abuse, and threats like Mr. Wilson, the 'ancient Pistol’ of the Republican Party. You must read Henry IV and V of Shakespeare to learn that character.*^'* On Christmas Day. 1871, Fernald held a meeting of prominent citizens at The Palms to organize Santa Barbara’s first gas light company. Prior to the 1870s, the only street lighting in Santa Barbara consisted of lanterns, ordered lighted at sundown by city ordinance, at the doorways of homes and business in the area bound by Figueroa, 124 Anacapa, Ortega and Chapala streets.

Investors quickly lined up including Dr. Samuel B. Brinkerhoff and businessman Charles T. Pierce.'^'’ Fernald contacted Samuel Pillsbury of the Maxim Gas Works in San Francisco to provide technical as sistance in the laying of gas mains, lined with brick. Though he brought gas light ing to the city, Fernald refused to convert The Palms to gas, afraid a ruptured gas line would set the residence ablaze. The fires of San Francisco had etched an indelible scar on Fernald’s psyche; he clearly recalled how the ruptured lines fueled fires that destroyed his library and his place of busi ness. He vowed not to place his family in harm’s way. Instead, he relied on kerosene lamps on the first floor and candlelight in the rest of the house until 1886, when he and a partner started the Santa Barbara Electric Light and Power Co., bringing electricity to the city.

The gas used in Fernald’s gas opera tion was not manufactured from coal, but from a low grade of gasoline, shipped in by steamer from San Francisco in steel drums. The gasworks were eventually located on De la Guerra and Santa Barbara streets. 126 On February 21. 1872, the gaslight era

CHARLES FERNALD

Ih-nald u'ds the prime mover behind bringing gas lighting to Santa Barbara's streets. Pictured here is State Street, looking northJmm / laley Street, early tSSos.Pdotegas lamp at right.

began in Sanca Barbara when che 1 irst Scare Screec o gaslighcs were turned on 1 rom Sceao rns Whart co Haley Screec. The Maxim gaslights, two per block, were eventually extended co Sola Street.'^ The SantaBarham limes reported: The light is sol t but brilliant, and il luminates quite as brightly and over as great an area as coal gas. It is a great credit to Sanca Barbara co have her main street lit up, and strangers will be struck with the fact chat we arc a live and go-ahead people.

Another light was shining at 'Ihc Palms, Charles Anselm. Fcrnald’s first son. was born on June 1. Charles Anselm made his entrance as a debate was raging on the prospects ot a railroad making an entrance into Sanca Barbara, It began when Alvinza Hayward promoted a new railroad, the California, Atlantic and Pacitic Railroad, a

concept, not a company with hard assets, and its plans to lay crack from San Fran cisco co Southern Calilornia, connecting with the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, a transcontinental route proposed along che 35'’' parallel. Huse represented the Califor nia line, w'hich would run directly through land owned by Col, W,W. Hollister and 129 his partner, Thomas B, Dibblee.

Hollister and his supporters favored giving aid to the Calilornia. Atlantic and Pacific Railroad in the lorm of land grants and a bond linanced by a special county tax.

Fernald and Bard opposed Hollister. The reason for Bard's opposition was obvious.

His patron, T, A. Scott, headed the Texas and Pacific Railway, a planned transcon tinental line along a .southern rouce—the 32’''* parallel—competing directly with the Atlantic anti Padlic Railroad. Bard, who developed Port Hueneme and had tormidable political and economic influence in San Buenaventura, saw Port Hueneme as

NOTICIAS

58 chc Paciiic Coasc terminus ot Texas and Pacific, Fcrnald’s support of Bard was, in all likcliliood. a combination of loyalty to his clients.

Scott and Bard,and to his best friend Bard, mixed with a healthy dose of skepticism about the ability of Parsons and Husc to successfully carry out their promotion to fruition.

This debate had a farger more nationa implication that pitted some of the most powerful men in the country against one another, Scott's Texas and Pacific Railroad not only posed a threat to the Atlantic and Pacific, it also posed a direct threat to C,P, Huntington’s Southern Pa cific, Scott's interest in California oil now took on a different hue in Huntington’s mind: it appeared to Huntington to be a direct challenge to Southern Pacific on its home turf.

The emerging conflict between the powerful national railroad interests and titans was reflected in Santa Barbara as emotions and finance raged like a grow'ing inferno with Col. Hollister and his Santa Barbara ^Morning Pres^ colliding with Bard, Fernald, the semi-weekly 'limes (with jarrett T. Richards as its

\A’iUiiim Welles I lollistcr ivds one oj Suntu Barham’s most jn-ominenl citizens oj the late iHoos. Pernald clashed uiih Hollister over milroad develojyment, but then dejended Hollister, unsuccesslidly, u'hen the heirs o/ Nicholas Den hronghi sidl over ou-nershij') oj Hollister’s Cjlen Annie ranch.

new publisher and editor), and the Fernald/ScotC'Controllcd Board of Supervisors.

Hollister pleaded, "11 we do not get immedi ate action to assist the Atlantic & Pa cific. Santa Barbara County may wind up with no railroad at all. This is our last and indeed our

r'

only chance to end our isolation in our ●’1,^1

generation, Fernald disagreed.

Thrusting aside claims of conflict of interest, Fcr-

d said he did "not represent any company, Scott, Stanlord. or anyone else." then went on to say he op posed "undue haste in jumping headlong into mortgaging the county into unborn " !32 generations.

Col, Hollister had the final word."1 am free to say that 1 do not understand the love of these gentlemen for a railroad. They seem to want it very much, but do all they can to oppose our getting one. They must love a railroad much as the Fiji Islanders love the missionaries—so well that they t,U kill them and cat them up.

Dc-spitc Hollister's public announce ment that he would "be PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for the proper use ot said bonds, so that NO LOSS will accrue to this County; and 1 will enter into a bond of obligation to repay every dollar of loss that may ever accrue to this County,” the Board refused to budge and ultimately Scott's political power brought to bear a complete defeat for Hollister. As a final note, a Railroad Committee of Twenty-Six was formed, with Hollister at its head, and other prominent citizens of Santa Barbara.

59

CHARLES FERNALD iiicluding Brinkcrliol I. Thomas B. Dibblcc, ElKvood and Joseph W. Cooper, jolin P. Stearns. Caspar Orcha, H. K. Winchester, and Charles E. Husc. One man was missing—Charles Fcrnald.'-^'’ The committee was unable to accomplish anything.

In the midst ol all his political, judicial and economic turmoil, Fcrnald suffered his greatest tragedv. Scven-vear-old Edith Eliot succumbed to scarlet fever. Upon hearing the news. Bard wrote to Fcrnald, "It must be hard for you to bear, but trust, my dear friend, that the child is well and that.

Oh not in cruelty, nor in wrath.

The reaper came that day, Twas an angel visiting the green earth and took the flower awav

Iragcdy stnickthc Fcnialdjamily idicn daughter Edith, slunni at left irith older sister Beatrice, was felled hy scarletjeverat age seven.

Fcrnald was soon launched upon another project. John P. Stearns had con structed a two thousand-loot-long w'harl in 1872, the longest wharf south ot San Francisco. Known as Stearns Wharl , it was a milestone in the city's history. Large ships could now disgorge their cargoes and passengers at the wharf, but public trans portation from the pier up State Street, the central road leading from the w'hari , was limited, so in March 1875 Fcrnald, Eugene Fawcett, and H. K. Winchester petitioned the city of Santa Barbara tor a franchise to construct and operate a horse railroad from the waterfront to Mission Street.

Fcrnald put up one-third of the capital lor the operation.

Not everyone supported the notion.

One letter to the Daily Press read: When a public franchise is to be granted to a private company, it is eminently proper that the effects of the proposed grant should be fully discussed and well understood by the public who arc to be al fcctcd by the grant. Now. let any person ob serve State Street in Santa Barbara, on a busy day. a line ot carriages or teams fastened on either side, next to the sidewalk, stands quartering into the street occupying ten or filtccn feet, the constant passing of vehicles in both directions leaves none too much room now tor car riages to pass each other without collision,’^^

:

But the Santa Barbara City Council agreed with Fcrnald. "There is no city or town, of any importance, in the United States, where it has not been proved by experience, chat Street Railroads are a ne cessity of American progress." and granted Fcrnald and his partners the charter on

NOTICIAS

60

In iSy^ Fcnuddu-as u mcinhcrojthe par(ncri<hil)U'lndi brought a streetcar system to Santa Barbara.

Here a car turns uvstjrom State Street onto the tcaterjront boulevard.

137

April 29,

It authorized Fcrnald's group CO conscriict and opcracc a scrccc railroad track and to run horse cars within the lim

no match lor Bell’s lawyer. Thomas B. Bishop of San Francisco. The subject of the lawsuit was Glen Annie, Hollister's ranch

its of the ciev bcainnins at the bottom of State Street near Stearns Wharf, north to

and estate, a metaphor tor his life and soul in many respects. It was an all-or-nothing battle for all parties, k started when Charles Husc. the at

Mission Street and along Victoria, Santa Barbara, Garden, Dc La Vina. Islay and Mason streets—to the edge ol the Seaside Hotel Company, The ordinance was signed by the city’s new mayor, Jarretc T, Richards, Construction ol the horse car railroad began on June 25 and the first scrccc car moved up State Street on August 21, pass ing the Scintd Barbara Indc.x at "precisely 5;15 P,M,” The Index reported the event, "It was a beauty and was crowded with the first excursionists who were deadheaded through to the end of the line at the new hotel in upper town, , , ,They have added immensely to the liveliness of the scrccc and to the pleasure, the comfort and the convenience of the people," In October 1875 Fcrnald became in volved in one of Santa Barbara's most com plex and emotionally charged litigations, defending Col, W. W. Hollister against Nicholas Den's daughter, Kate Den Bell, and the Nicholas Den estate. Although Fcrnald was a capable land lawyer, he was

torney and administrator of the Den estate, sued to end the Nicholas Den trust. Serious issues of malfeasance and defalcation had arisen and FIusc sought to end and bury any lurthcr revelations. However, Husc underestimated the consequences of his action. Countersuits filed by a slew of parties followed immediately, cascading through the courthouse like a stampeding herd of cattle.

Husc had arranged the sale of portions of Den’s Rancho Los Dos Pueblos parcels to various parties—Hollister had acquired Glen Annie from the Den estate-and these sales became the subject matter of these lawsuits.

Bell and Bishop sued Hollister and the other buyers of Dos Pueblos lands claiming Husc, as the estate administrator, had no authority or power to sell the lands, only to lease them. The Dens were crying to recover Glen Annie from Hollister.

Glen Annie was Hollister’s pride and

CHARLHS FERNALD

61 the Calitornia Supreme Court reversed Judge Sepulveda's decision and ordered a new trial, but news of the reversal did not arrive in Santa Barbara until just before Christmas. When Col. Hollister read the story in the Daily Alta he was devastated and iired Wilson. Fernald appealed to Albert Dibblcc: Our client Col. Hollister docs not seem to understand Mr. Wilson,

Katherine Den Bell, at right, with daughter Katherine, iS8^. After fourteen years oj legal ivranglmg, Bell ivas sxiccessfid ht regaining tide to Qlen Anniefor the Den heirs.

joy. Fernald. retained by Hollister, treated

the matter lightly and assured Hollister Glen Annie was secure. Alter all, Hollister had plunged more than $250,000 to build the estate and make improvements on it.

Kate Bell and the Den estate did not have SLillidcnt funds to repay lor the improve ments. Moreover. Kate Bell had initially HO approved the sale.

Hollister began to lose faith in Fcrnald’s ability to contend with Bishop, and asked his agent in San Francisco. Albert Dibblcc. to hire the best lawyer money could buy.

Dibblcc retained attorney Samuel Wilson to assise Fernald. According to Walker Tompkins. "Fernald W'as. in Hollister’s jaundiced opinion, a small and inept frog ”141 in a very large puddle.

The ease dragged on lor nearly three years w’hcn Judge Ygnacio Sepulveda con firmed the Den estate sale to Hollister and

and there is a danger that the Colonel will drive Mr. Wilson out ol the ease. 1 also fear that Col. Hollister and Ellw'ood Cooper [buyer ol Ellwood Canyon trom the Den estate] do not understand or appreciate our services, nor comprehend the char acter or magnitude ol the struggle we have had to save their property. ... 1 feel pained and grieved beyond power ol expression that there has been any misunderstanding about tees of counsel . . . Mr. Wilson, as you know, came into the case very reluctantly. His services have been 143 . . . of great value.

ElKvood Cooper, one ol the grantees ol a Dos Pueblos grant, and a Fernald client, settled wdth the Den estate, returning one thousand acres in exchange for keeping two thousand. It is not knowm wdicthcr Fernald assisted Cooper in reaching this settlement. How'cvcr, Hollister fired Fernald and Wilson, hired a prominent attorney Irom San Francisco and went back into litigation only to lose more than a decade later in the California Supreme Court. He never learned the outcome;

the other grantees. Hollister w^as displeased w'ith the fees charged bv Fernald and Wil-

he died on August 8, 1886. long before the court rendered its decision.

son and had to be pressed by others to pay them. Bell then appealed the decision.

A year later, on November 13. 1879,

In the final chapter of the saga, the Hol lister family w'as evicted from Glen Annie.

Just before the eviction Annie Hollister,

NOTICIAS

62 Col. Hollister’s widow, vowed that no Den would ever set loot in the mansion. No Den ever did; shortly alter the Hollisters moved out. the mansion burned down to the ground, ostensibly due to ''spontane ous combustion in beeswax" which had accumulated inside the walls.H.'".

On July 6, 1880, the Fernalds’ filth and last child, Reginald Goodwin, was born, bcarincT a middle name honoring his grcac-grcat'grcat-grandfathcr. General Ichabod Goodwin, ot South Berwick.

York County. Maine, who distinguished himself at che battle o( Ticonderoga under Major General Abercrombie. Forever the "baby” of the family he was affcctionatelv known as Reggie or Reg. Fcrnald enlarged the house to accom modate the new addition to the family.

The [expansion ot the] house was hascily complcccd in 1880 and was used when . . . Reginald Goodwin Fcrnald, che youngest in a family of 1 ive[children], was christened. This reception was an important func tion and the "beau mondc" ol the little town was there. The baby was baptized by the Rev. Archibald G. L, True, rector at Trinity Church.

The Church—and Mrs. Fcrnald was one ol the founders—was then on Gutierrez Street.

Several attempts were made to get Fcrnald elected or appointed to public office, including an important post as Minister to Mexico. In a letter to President James A. Garfield dated March 15. 1881,

'Ihe Fcnuild lamily, ticn years after Charles I'ernald’s death. Left to right, Beatrice with l{egmald l^)herts, son from her first marriage, I\eginald, Hannah, Florence, Charles A. Seated in front is Ftiot Rjiherts.

CHARLES FERNALD U.S. Senator George C. Perkins described Fernald as a "lawyer by profession and a gentleman of culture and fine literary at tainments” who "combines a knowledge of the language, customs, and laws of the Mexicans which especially commends him for the mission. '147 A few days later Ichabod Goodwin, Hannah’s uncle, a former governor of New Hampshire, and a powerful financier and merchant, told Fernald he would write to Secretary of State James G. Blaine, "a particular acquaintance and an old friend.” in support of his appointment as Minister to Mexico.

Bard was more cautious, warning Fer nald. "You must recollect that the political organizations of this State not excepting our own, are all in a great measure con trolled or managed by the railroad compa nies and other large corporations, and this Mexican Mission is undoubtedly one that the railroad corporations of the country would make useful to themselves.” Bard was right. Stanford and C.P. Huntington did not support Fernald, and the president 148 appointed someone else.

Although Fernald shunned running for public office, in 1882 a campaign began to induce him to become a mayoral candidate for Santa Barbara. When a petition signed by nearly every citizen of substance in Santa Barbara was presented to him. Fer nald regarded it seriously. Wliere William Tecumseh Sherman once said, "If nomi nated, I will not accept; if drafted, I will not run; if elected. I will not serve,” Fernald was more receptive if not enthusiastic and thankful for the sentiment. He said, "If my fellow citizens shall think it proper to elect me to the office I shall strive to discharge faithfully the duties attaching to it; but I cannot consent to be placed in the position of a solicitor for it, nor shall I do any act 149 or thing to obtain it."

63 He did not need to solicit votes. There was nearly universal support for his elec tion. An editorial in the Santa Barbara Press endorsed his candidacy: . . . Such a man has been induced to accept the nomination, in the person of Judge Charles Fernald.

An old resident, and one who has heretofore been entrusted with high honors, he is an able, talented gentle man. He has not sought the office; he will accept an election simply as a mark of the esteem in which he is held by his townsmen. The Press is authorized to say that his voice will be for retrenchment, economy,and the best interests of the city. ...As the matter of salary is being made an important factor in this fight, we are also prepared to state positively that Judge Fernald, if elected, will serve his term gratuitously. He will regard the honor of the position as sufficient recompense for his ser vices. . ..We need a man who will have a sacred regard for the duties and honors of the position, and who will give his best energies to the up building of our city. Firmly believing that Judge Fernald is such a man, we give him our heartiest endorsement. .

Fernald won the election by a landslide; his opponent received a mere eleven votes.

From his first days in office, Fernald risked making himself quite unpopular with other public officials, including council members, by demanding that the voters be given a chance to express their views before any salaries were established. To set an example Fernald declined the $600 annual stipend payable to the mayor. He served two terms without compensation.

NOTICIAS

64 Years later the Santa Barbara News-Press published a vignette from an article appear ing at the time: A large number of our leading citi zens last evening paid their respects to Judge Charles Fernald,our newly elected Mayor. The Judge received his guests in the most hospitable manner, inviting them into his elegant mansion, and introducing them at a later hour to a sumptuous banquet. Appropriate toasts and fit ting responses were made, and the heartiest congratulations and good 1.11 wishes were expressed.

Fernald’s view of his public role was well publicized. He told those gathered at Ihe Palms that evening that: I claim the privilege of sharing with you a deep solicitude for the well being and progress of this city and if there be any pleasure greater than that of seeing you under my roof it lies in the hope that 1 may be instrumental in some way of promoting its prosperity and hap piness of its inhabitants. Nothing can be accomplished without your support and encouragement. Public opinion is more potent than legisla tive enactments. With your aid and support, I shall hope to succeed in accomplishing something for the common good. It shall be my pur pose to deserve both to the end A short time after the election, Fer nald left for a fishing trip to Calaveras County in Northern California with Bard. As an amateur horticulturalist he loved the giant sequoias. The remains of a tree that was felled in 1853 measuring

ninety-two feet in circumference was near the Mammoth Grove Hotel in Big Trees, California, where he was staying.

It once stood over three hundred feet in height. The stump had become a dance floor. Stunned by the immense beauty of the trees and the savage scenery, he felt compelled to write to Hannah: This Sunday a.m. and the 52^ an niversary of the birth of yours truly.

Yesterday, we went fishing....Mr. Bard caught a nice one. I got one "bite" but landed no fish. The truth is, I cannot catch fish with a fly. I must learn. The country . . . is just splendid. I do "hanker” after this forest. Next year we must come up in these mountains and remain for 153

the year.

Although he spent his birthday fishing with Bard, he didn’t miss his and Hannah’s twentieth wedding anniversary. Fernald purportedly called Hannah his "sparrow,” and his anniversary gift, a stained glass window of English origin depicting a spar row perched on a nest, which held four eggs, seems to confirm this.‘^^ The eggs may have symbolized their four surviving children. Fernald installed it in the transom 155

of the entry hall of 'Ihe Palms.

Fernald and Hannah entertained often and lavishly at The Palms, with countless official dinners and receptions where their cook, Wah Sing, would prepare eight-course dinners with oysters brought from San Francisco by steamer under ice, a medley of local fish, local game, and roasts. They had important visi tors at the mansion including Hannah’s cousin-in-law, George Dewey, destined to become Admiral of the Navy and the "hero of Manila Bay” during the Spanish-American War,and her uncle Ichabod

65

CHARLHS FHRNALD Goodwin, lormcr governor ot New Hampshire.

Perhaps cheir most dis tinguished visitor arrived in January. 1883. Her j Royal Highness The / Princess Louise(daugh- / ter ot Queen Victoria / ot Great Britain), her consort the Marquess ol Lome, Gov ernor General oi Can ada. and their court.

Thev had arrived on Christmas Eve, 1882, and in his capacity as mayor. Fcrnald and Hannah entertained them at 'IhePalnis.l.'iH Fcrnald showed little re luctance to e.xprcss his political philosophy. He believed that "the despot and the communist move upon the same political plane. Both arc robbers of the industries ol others.” And long before Winston Churchill reputedly said ”11 you are twenty and not liberal you have no heart; il you arc forty and not a ●M.69 conservative you don’t have a mind.

Fcrnald was making the same point. "A parcel ol land and a home in this country soon transforms the fiery communist into a reasonably conservative head of a fam ily, desirous of dividing his property only ” 160 among his children.

At the Fourth of July celebration in Santa Barbara in 1883. Fcrnald gave an exposition on his views on immigration, a problem he regarded as sufficiently grave to warrant an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. ft is time now' to say to the immi grant from whatever land he comes, on granting asylum or conferring

The Feniaids often opened their home to distinguished s:uests. o c* I Princess Louise, diiughtcr oj Qiieen Victorui oj Cjreat Bntain, dined at The Palms. Femald ivas \ mayor oj Santa Barbara \ at the time.

the great privileg es of citizenship of the Republic; As you have lett your native land, so leave your political animosities behind you.

This is not a land of politi cal conspiracies, nor is it to be made the battle ground upon which 161 to settle your foreign issues.

Fcrnald loiind another source of irrita tion; the political power vested in private corporations. He did not want them to gain "the means of controlling State and National Governments.” Fcrnald firmly believed in making "life and property secure." in punishing crime, and making "peculation in high office high treason.”

Horticulture was one of Fcrnald's passions. He was president of the Santa Barbara Horticulture Society, and in that capacity received a small package from Mrs, Charles Hutton of Bath. England, containing seeds of the giant eucalyptus of Western Australia. Fernald arranged to have the seeds distributed throughout California, particularly to members of other horticultural societies. He believed that in time the eucalyptus trees would thrive in the state, and he was risht.

Todav O /

NOTICIAS

66 eucalyptus trees arc nearly as generic in Calilornia as they are in Australia.

As early as 1865, Fcrnald was deeply engrossed in fruit culture and in forestry, becoming a life member of chc American Forestry Association and beginning chc first experiment in chc planting and cultivation ol olive trees in Southern Calilornia, outside ol the old missions.

He purchased the "Belmont Property." about seventy-live acres ol land outside Santa Barbara and planted olives of chc mission variety to confirm chc suitability ol Southern California's soil and climate tor olive trees and chc production of olive oil.

Fcrnald displayed his bent lor horticul ture for all CO see. According to chc Santa Barham iVe.s.s his home rcllectcd his keen involvement with all forms of tauna;

Among chc variety of tropical trees and plants are the sago palm, several other varieties of the order Paimac. magnolias, loquats in full bearing, and bananas. Near these, ov scat tered at intervals about chc place, arc many Australian, Indian and African trees, llow'crs and shrubs, with every sort of temperate zone fruit, berry and vine, the whole ar ranged with the cl lccc of a model landscape garden. Water lilies brim the surface oi a broad foundation not lar Irom chc shadow ol a white birch. A New England elm spreads its boughs, heavy with leal buds . . . Parterres of roses of three hundred varieties, camellias, and amaryhilis, ferns, banks and masses ol bloom delight at every step. . . .

I'●'4

7/ie gnnoa/.s oj The Palms, an zdyo, ichich tooh up an cntvx' cii\ hlocl{, attested to Feniald’s interest in horticulture.

'■ '-V

'Mt-m:: *● / V.f

1

' \

......

- yj

CHARLES FERNALD

67

Many regarded 'The Palms and its gar dens as one of the loveliest homes in Santa

purpose of creating pedigreed offspring.

From nature to modernization, Fernald

Barbara. John J. Boyce said the entire city block was "devoted to the culture of fruit

was always in the forefront. In 1886 he introduced electricity to Santa Barbara, forming the Santa Barbara Light and Power Co. with partner Walter H. Nixon. Un derstandably,‘The Palms became one of the first residences in Santa Barbara to convert

and forest trees.... The numerous palms, magnolia, banana, camphor, pomegran ate, rubber trees, and other tropical flora, remind one of the Southern California home; but side by side is what gives a peculiar charm to the eye of the visitor, for the elm, the oak, black walnut and the maple from the soil of the eastern states, flourish with equal luxuriance ...” uniting "the character of social life in New Eng land the genial hospitality and grace of the sunny south.

Tlie Santa Barbara News'Press, quot ing earlier reports, described the grounds in a similar vain: Since the thick impenetrable hedge of pepper trees surrounding Judge Fernald’s property on Haley Street has been cut down, the passerby has a fine view of the house and well kept grounds, the vineyard extending from the house to the end of the block, the fine flower beds, and the ornamental trees. It is one of the prettiest homes in the City, and the front fence is an additional improvement. It always pays to keep a garden well cultivated and in good order. It would be a great improvement if some of the other garden owners would clear away 166 weeds and plant flowers.

Fernald also pioneered the breeding of certified Jersey cattle in Southern Califor nia, delivering "Dolores” his three-yearold Jersey cow and "Mora,” his Jersey heifer, to Thomas Barrows of Nordhoff (now Ojai), Ventura County, to breed them with Barrow’s Jersey stock for the

to electric lighting, having intentionally skipped the short gas era.

Between October 1886 and February 1887, Santa Barbara Light and Power Co. erected light towers and standards along State Street while stringing copper wire.

"There was considerable argument among 'experts’ at the time as to whether electric current could be conveyed around comers on wires strung between poles. One school of thought was that electrical energy trav eled in straight lines, like a beam of light, and that any change of direction would spill the current into space.”

Finally two 150-foot towers were erected, one on the northeast corner of State and Victoria streets opposite Hawley’s Arlington Hotel and the other at the foot of Stearns Wharf.

Each tower was equipped with four 2,000candlepower lamps.

On March 19 Fernald flipped the switch to power the first streetlights to shine on State Street, a staged spectacle witnessed by hundreds of townspeople. The event continued until midnight when the street and Santa Barbara once again plunged into darkness. 168 Fernald, however, remained in the light.

New attempts to have him appointed Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of Califor nia succeeded and on January 10,1887, the Clerk of the Ninth Circuit Court signed a 169 notice confirming his appointment.

Charles and Hannah celebrated their silver wedding anniversary on August 8.

As an anniversary present, Fernald gave

68

NOTiCIAS

Hannah a magnificent silver candelabrum he had purchased in San Francisco during 170 one of his frequent trips to the city.

The twenty- inch tall candelabrum rested on a circular base with turtle feet. Two neo-classical figures supported the center section with the upper section branching out to six candlcholders, with an ad ditional one in the center. It became the centerpiece ol the dining room and its 171 primary source of lighting.

By now the relationship between Fcrnald and Jarrett T. Richards, his prior law partner, had deteriorated. Words had been exchanged and possibly financial issues arose between them. But in 1887 Richards sent a letter to Fcrnald seeking reconciliation.

There have been some clashing of opinion in the past, about many things, some harsh words, per-

haps in heat, that had better been unsaid on my part—some words of your own uttered publicly to me that at the time wounded me beyond power of expression; but 1 never remember nor treasure up nor carry with me any memory or burden ol wrongs for of such arc the links made that bind us the world ol the damned, The lollowing dav Fcrnald magnanimoLisIy returned the note receivable from Richards in the amount of $'591.97. marked "cancelled.’' and signed "Your sincere Iriend." Richards returned the note to Fcrnald. and cold him he intended to repay it in the future and expressed his gratitude for his generosity; "None but the kindest feelings exist in my heart cowards you and, in fact, it has never born you malice. My anger has always

.■\ii iiL’ctric pnivcr [mle may he seen at right in this view ofthe 500 blackof State Street, early iSgos. Pcniald had the honor of su'itchini on the first electriclighls to illimiinate State Street on Mai-ch ig,

-

S

f SeneralTemperancelliiiorvij

69

CHARLES FERNALD

...

EcsUitic citizens hcniLl the arrival oftke first train to Santa Barbara, August u), iSSy.The next evening, Fernaidivas masterofceremonies at agrandhanqitcL held at the Arlington Hotel to commemorate the event.

been like summer showers and the con tending passions ol an ardent, ambitious soul , . "17!

Notwithstanding the railroad wars pitting the Hollister and Dibblee factions against Bard, Richards, and Fcrnald. and the inability ol the parties to agree to any measure by which Santa Barbara would provide land grants and other bcnclics to railroads to induce them to place a junc tion or spur in Santa Barbara, on August 19, 1887, at 3:55 p.m., the citizens of Santa Barbara jubilantly greeted the first train to arrive in the city. It carried three hundred visitors Irom the south for the celebration, arriving on a spur line Irom Newhall-Saugus, through Santa Paula and Ventura. A second train arrived at 5:45 p.m. with six Pullman cars to serve as a hotel for the railroad's guests. Two more trains arrived on Saturday, one of which ”174 was said to have held "1.000 passengers.

The Weekly Independent zrumpcicd."Santa Barbara’s millennium has arrived! Come

all yc who arc weary ot stagecoach and saddle, and ride at the race oF thirty miles ”175

per hour!

That evening. Fcrnald was the master of ceremonies at a special banquet to com memorate the occasion. The lilty-dollars-a-plate dinner was held at the grand Arlington Hotel, where tables leatured elaborate floral models. One lloral display was six Icct long and depicted "the depot, a locomotive and tender along with four passenger cars,’’ another boasted a threeloot-long steamship sidc-whcclcr. Charles A. Storke and John P. Stearns were the principal speakers.

The next day, another celebration commemorated the event. A transporta tion pageant where hundreds ot school children carrying t lowers marched down State Street, followed by marching bands, military units Irom San Francisco, and historical transportation exhibits such as a Pony Express rider, a covered w'agon. and a stagecoach, representing progress in

70

NOTICIAS

transportation. The procession ended with civic leaders and private citizens riding in dozens of floral-bedecked carriages. Af terward three thousand people attended a celebratory picnic, with Fernald presiding.

Walker Tompkins described the event: The Railroad Celebration climaxed with the giant picnic under the live oaks at Burton Mound, an event never again equaled in the city’s his tory. The sumptuous meal. . . was served to hundreds of visitors and townspeople. That night the fes tivities wound up at the new Santa Barbara Agricultural Pavilion on the seaward edge of the Salt Pond, with concerts provided by the brass band from the San Francisco Presidio.‘^^ There was only one problem with the celebration. Although railroad transporta tion to the south and points east was ac cessible directly out of Santa Barbara, the northbound link left passengers traveling over the San Marcos Pass by stagecoach to Los Olivos for the connecting train. The link from Santa Barbara northbound was not completed until 1901.

In 1889 Fernald, fifty-nine, was not feeling well. He didn’t know how sick he was until he consulted with Dr. Richler in San Francisco.*^ The prognosis was glum.

Determined not to burden his family, Fer nald gave a different spin to his ailments, especially to his children. It was severe enough that he retired from active practice with his law firm on State Street, the Law Office of Fernald, Cope & Boyce, and be gan a limited practice as "Charles Fernald, Counselor-at-Law and Commissioner of U.S. District Court” from his home.“^° His legal practice had been one of the most distinguished in California and, certainly in Santa Barbara. His clients

included John C. Jones, Thomas A. Scott.

Thomas Bard, T. Wallace More, Henry M. Newhall, Dr. Nicholas Den, Col. W. W. Hollister, Thomas B. Dibblee, Dr. J. R. Shaw, Ellwood Cooper, hazard Freres, the Pacific Coast Steamship Company,and the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Like many who sense the emerging and ominous shadow of mortality, Fernald began to immerse himself in genealogy, tracing his and Hannah’s roots and care 181 fully documenting their ancestors.

His feelings for Hannah had not less ened one iota over the thirty years of their marriage. When she took Beatrice and her first grandchild. Reginald Roberts, to Boston, a grieving Fernald wrote: Arrived home all right at 6 p.m.

—found dear Flossie, Charley & Reg all right. The house was quiet, and supper over . . . I entered all of the chambers one after the other drawn thither by a strange feeling of loneliness and to take note mentally in my inner self of your absence. . . . There is always a dear sense of sorrow impressed upon us by visiting and observing ever the vacant apartments of the loved ones who have gone from us, be it ever so briefly. You. who have been so constantly near us for so many years. Always at your post . . . taking charge of everything in the household. Taking such tender care of us. We seemed to feel that you never could go away from us, 182 even for a day.

His maudlin expressions of sentiments were potentially impassioned by knowing he had little time left. Fernald undertook a serious appraisal of his holdings and began the final stages of completing his estate

71

CHARLES FERNALD plan. callingLipon his best friend, Thomas Bard, to serve as a co-executor and coadministrator ol his estate with Hannah.

In agreeing to act in those capacities, on January 27, 1891, Bard expressed his Icclings co chc man he regarded as his mosc faichlul friend: You know it is folly lor me ever co be able during your lifetime co do anything co compensate you lor chc continued acts ol Iriendship lor which 1 am under obligation co you and so if 1 should survive you there is some chance then chat 1 could

discharge my debe zo your family. . , 1 look back of the pasc 25 years.

I always am compelled co regard you as my mosc laiihlul and help ful Iricnd, and char the associacion with you has been chc most inlluential factor ol chc formation ol my characccr.’''^^ On February 4. 1891, Fcrnald put pen to paper anddralccd his linal will. It began: "In chc name of God. Amen. 1, Charles Fcrnald . . , being ol sound and disposing mind and memory, but mindful of chc Linccrtaintv ol human lilc. . .

Florence FeniuLl, at the time of her father’s death, Jidy iSgz. Florence eventually inheritedThc Palms and lived there until her death in 1958. 7 he house then passed into the hands ofthe Santa Barbara I listorical A iuseum.

NOTICIAS

72 k was a twelve-page, handwritten will, instructing Bard and Hannah to transfer the majority of his assets to her, and reaf firms that The Palms, and the land on which it was situated, had been deeded to Hannah upon their marriage. As to the objects in The Palms the will provided; I give and bequeath to my son Reginald, my library and my black walnut bookcase and writing desk in library, to be delivered to him on his attaining majority (as of this writing, Reginald is ten years old]. And 1 especially direct my son Reginald to preserve all such books as contain records and references to the genealogy, lineage and history of my ancestors, and to transmit them without loss, mutilation or injury to his heirs.

I give and bequeath to my son Charles Anselm, my watch and jewels.

I give and bequeath to my daugh ter Florence Hermione the "upright Weber piano” in the residence and piano chair, music stand, etc.

I give and bequeath to my dear wife, during her natural life, all of the household furniture, silver plate, pictures and engravings in my residence, to be preserved by her and recommend her to give and distribute them, at her death to our said children.

Two employees of the Santa Barbara County National Bank witnessed the will.

Fernald was a director of that bank. A third witness worked as a law student in the office of J. J. Boyce, Esq., Fernald’s old 184 partner and friend.

On April 24, 1891, the first American president to visit Santa Barbara, Ruth-

erford B. Hayes, arrived. Santa Barbara mayor, Peter J. Barber, appointed Fernald 185 to a committee to greet President Hayes.

Although unwell, Fernald attended the ceremonies and participated in a floral parade headed by a Spanish cavalcade and followed by more than a hundred decorated carriages.

On January 25, 1892, Fernald submit ted an application on behalf of Hannah Hill Hobbs Fernald for membership in the National Society, Daughters of the Ameri can Revolution. He had already gained admission to the National Association of Sons of the American Revolution.***" But her confirmation did not take place until October 3; Fernald did not live to see it.***** Music always played an important role in Fernalds life. All his children learned to play a musical instrument, but one truly excelled; Florence had become a virtuoso at the piano. In March 1892, a weak and paling Fernald had one of his last outings, attending with Hannah the debut of Florence at the Amateur Musical Club. After hearing several orchestral presentations, including Johann Strauss’ Soundsfrom the Vienna Woods and ballet music from Faust, Florence performed piano solos of works by Robert Schumann and Niels Gade. One can only imagine the pride Fernald felt that evening. A reviewer for the Wloming Press wrote: The lady rarely favors the public with an exhibition of her skill, much to the public regret, and last

Opposite: The Fernald Mansion on its way to its new home at West Montecito Street.

Moving the house was a delicate operation; here progress is temporarily halted at Castillo and Qutierrez streets when the load shifted on the tractor bed.

CHARLES FERNALD evening we wvre all expectant as the fair performer took her place beside the instrument that loves her touch so well. Purling brooks, songs of trees, the roar of the cataract and the notes ol the birds could combined do no more to electrify the soul and please the senses than Miss Fcrnald does at her piano. . . .Miss Fernald is the beautilul daughter of Hon. Charles Fernald, one our most respected 1S9 and distinguished citizens.

73 As his cimc neared its end. Fernalds thoughts turned entirely to his family. His eldest son. Charles Anselm, a freshman in the first class to attend Lcland Stanford.Jr. University, received the lollowing missive from his lather: You and your sisters & brother d: dear mama arc now my only care and fill my thoughts exclusive of all other earthly things. 1 am so proud of you. dear Charley.

1 hope to live to sec you strong

NOTICIAS

74 and able and useful. Raise your thoughts daily & hourly to all holy, whole and pure things, aims and purposes. Learn to improve every hour in acquiring useful knowledge.

But know yourself. Control your thoughts and actions and then you will become strong daily. Love God and keep his commandments always—adore your good, precious & saintly mother, & love your sisters and brother.’®*’ Fernald had promised to take Reginald on a week-long hunting and fishing trip in the Santa Ynez Valley on his twelfth birthday, July 6, but those plans were dashed when Fernald suffered severe heart pains. Hannah summoned Dr. Charles Bates, who examined Fernald, but concluded the condition was not serious.

After a little breakfast and penning a letter to Don Antonio’®'. Fernald went into the garden of The Palms. In a letter Florence wrote to her sister. Beatrice, she described what happened:

and we wrapped him up and then he said he wanted to go upstairs . . . We got him into bed and then he seemed to feel more comfortable . . . My heart is breaking as 1 write this. For if I had known and realized that there was anything serious . . .192 Shortly after 1:00 a.m. of the following day, with family members at his side, Fernald died at home. His heart failed from coronary thrombosis. He was sixtytwo years old.

Papa’s gone. Oh no, it can’t be true.

I keep saying over & over. The desolation is something almost unbearable. All these things wring my heart. . . . It was all so sudden and it is so inexpressibly sad that I do not know what we shall do. Dear Mama is very brave, but it makes my heart ache to look at her sad and helpless face. . . . Oh dear, oh dear.

What shall we do? . . . 193

He called to Mama and told her to

Fernald died in the bed that all

call Charley, for he was suffering so. And Mama found him lying down, so she took his head in her

of his children were nurtured in; the

lap and Charley came and I came and Reg. And I said, "Did not Dr. B. leave any medicine?’’ And so when Mama told me where it was I ran and brought one of the pellets and Charley went after his rocking chair to draw him into the house.

Charley pulled him along . . . we stopped a few moments and rubbed his hands. And then we pulled him along to the steps. And he leaned on Charley and walked up the steps and into the parlor where he laid down. I got a hot water bottle

English brass canopied bed he had purchased in San Francisco in 1863 following the birth of Beatrice. At the time of his death, Fernald had been sleeping in the nursery, a small room connected to the master bedroom where Hannah slept.

The family immediately sent a telegram to Bard. From his home in Port Hueneme, California, Bard responded to Hannah,"The sad mes sage unfits me for any actions. I share in your bereavement for he was my nearest and truest friend, and loving companion. Man’s sympathy cannot help you. I can only pray that God

CHARLES FERNALD

/.'I

horse-drawn licarsc as ir made its

w'ill comfort and sustain you and your dear children. 194

solemn way cowards State Street, lollowed by dozens oi carriages filled with the mourning. The "great procession" then moved up State CO Anapamu Street and hence CO the church where an overflow’

Flags in Santa Barbara were lowered to hall mast and the mournful colling of the great Trinity Episcopal Church bell heralded the start of the funeral services.

One witness described the sad affair:

crow'd paid their last respects, while the choir sang Nearer My God to Thee and Lead Kindly Light, the Judge’s favorite hymns.

As nine wdiice-gloved pallbearers bore Fernald’s casket from his residence, the Knight Templars, w’ich sw'ords crossed, formed in

His elaborately draped casket returned CO the hearse and the procession continued on to Santa Barbara Cemetery, w’here he was interred on the highest pinnacle overlooking the sea. His Knights Templar associates then perlormed the Cross oi

open ranks from the front steps to the entrance gate—in tribute to their fallen associate. The Templars then joined members ol the State L5ar, City Council and Fernald’s surviving family in proceeding the

I he CharLes iaiiald

lan^ion toda^. William B. Dcivc'i photoi:,raph.

i

NOTICIAS

76 196 A ten-foot tall Steel over his grave, granite cross, etched with the monogram was installed over the grave.

Hannah continued to reside at The

Palms for the next thirty-two years, until her death in 1929, and Florence lived there until she died in the fall of 1958.'^” What happened next is one of the interesting stories of Santa Barbara, as told by David Bisol, current Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum:

Miss Fernald’s will stated that the home was to be torn down.

She feared that it would become a cheap boarding house much as the rest of the neighborhood. Mr. A. C. Postel, Florence’s lawyer, issued an opinion that if the home was preserved as an historic landmark, her wishes would not be violated.

In the spring of 1959, W. Edwin Gledhill, Santa Barbara Historical Society director, set in motion a campaign to raise money to purchase the Fernald House and move it to the TrussellWinchester property at 414 West Montecito Street.

With support from the community the house was cut into three sections and transported across Highway 101, across the railroad tracks at Castillo Street in coordination with railroad timetables, and placed at its new location. It took two days and nearly four hundred telephone cables 200 were cut and replaced for the journey.

Fittingly, The Palms, known today as the Fernald Mansion, a stately, restored museum regarded as one of America’s one hundred best historical house museums,^®* remains a poignant reminder of the role Charles Fernald of Berwick,Maine, played in the development and evolution of the

sleepy pueblo of Santa Barbara into one of the most attractive and highly regarded cities in California.

Whatcan one makeofCharlesFernald’s legacy? He arrived in Santa Barbara as a young man when the small pueblo was ”202 where "neither charming nor gentle, the transition had just begun from the old and gracious manner of the Californios to the faster-paced and rapidly evolving American ethos, a transition unmarked by direction or planning and where anything was possible. These rugged conditions, with little structure and even less law and order, brought out the true character in individuals, a fitting setting perhaps for a Shakespearean play, the perfect breeding ground for deceptive and manipulative characters like lago or Jack Powers. On the other hand, the same conditions could bring forth upstanding individuals like Othello—and like Charles Fernald.

Fernald displayed his sense of reason and human qualities by bridging the everwidening gap between the old Californios and their new stepbrothers, the Anglos.

Don Carlos, as he was called, was not a saint and he was not perfect, but he was a genuinely caring man, caring for his family and caring for his community.

He gave his community many things: principles, law, order, judgment, and industry. He gave his family no less; especially to the one woman he loved so dearly for his entire life, his wife Hannah, and to his children. Beyond generalities, he gave his community a city .with undisputed and patented boundaries, a new road over the Santa Ynez mountains, a streetcar system, the first gas works, and the first electric utility. His former law partner. Jarrett T. Richards, continued to practice law and his firm, known today as Price Postel & Parma, has had an uninterrupted reign of

CHARLES FERNALD

77

155 years. Fcrnald supporced many public causes. He believed in education, building die first stand-alone school house with Charles E. Hiise, and became one of the 20.^

first investors in Santa Barbara College.

In politics he railed against slavery, formed the Republican Party of Santa Barbara in support of Lincoln's candidacy and the

*!»

Union, and served as mayor pro bono for two terms. He even saw the merits ot a green environment w'ith his emphasis on horticulture and farming.

That is some legacy for a man wLo died at the young age of sixty-two. Santa Barbara has been the fortunate beneficiary ol his largesse.

NOTICIAS

78

'David S. Bisol,"The Grand Lady of die

Barbara County, California (Oakland, CA.: Thompson and West, 1883), 36.

Charles Fernald to Mrs. C. A. Storke,

Society.” Noticias 36(Summer 1990): 26. ^ John J. Boyce. "Sketch of Life of Hon. Charles Fernald”(TS)at the Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum. ^ During colonial times, where the Church of England reigned, governments distributed land to the church for use

25 October 1890, Huntington Library Collection. Fernald tells Mrs. Storke he also saw Jeremiah Mason, the attorney known as "the great master of Daniel Webster,” in action.

12

Robert V. Hine and John Mack Faracher.

as farms, shops, or houses. These glebe properties were often farmed or rented

The American West: A New Interpretive History {New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000). 234.

out by church rectors to generate income to meet the financial needs of the

h ttp ://w w w.parks.ca.gov/?page_id= 1128 (accessed September 7. 2007).

church. Wikipedia contributors, "Glebe," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http.// en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=GIeb e&oldid=153379374(accessed September 4. 2007).

Dr. Renald Fernald was one of the

California Star, 10 June 1848. http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist/chronl. html (accessed August 12, 2007).

Ibid.

NewYorkHerald, 27 January 1849. http:// www.pt5dome.com/NYHShips01271849.

petitioners to the Honorable General Court at Boston: "Whereas, the name of

htm (accessed August 12, 2007).

this plantation at present being Strabery Banke accidentally soe called by reason of a banke where straberries was found in this place, now we humbly desire to have it called Portsmouth, being a name most suitable for this place, it being the rivers

Robert Glass Cleland, A History of California: The American Period (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922), 232-235.

19

However, neither ship arrived in San Francisco on July 1. The Oregon arrived on April 1, 1849. See http://www.

mouth, and good as any in this land.. .”

Petition granted May 28, 1653. Waters.

maritimeheritage.org/log.htm. The Panama arrived in San Francisco on June

Henry Fritz-Gilbert, The New~England Elistorical &QeneoLogical Register and Antiquarian Journal 23(1869): 163

1, 1849. It is unlikely Fernald sailed on the Panama. At a reunion of the Pioneer

●’’ Boyce. ^ In 1800 it was known as Fort Sullivan.

Panama Passengers held in San Francisco on June 4, 1874. the 25"'’ anniversary of its arrival in San Francisco. Fernalds name

http://www.Iarouchepub.com/other/ 2005/3225portsmouth_navy.html (accessed August 5, 2007).

Tarker McCobb Reed, The Bench and Bar

does not appear on the list of attendees.

As one of the California pioneers, it is highly unlikely he would have missed

ofWisconsin: History and Biography (Milwaukee: PR. Reed Publishers. 1882), 144. ^ Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs. 25 July 1861, Huntington Library Collection, San Marino. California.

^ Ibid.

Jesse Diamond Ma.son. Flistory ofSanta

such an event. http://www.sfgenealogy. com/sf/panama49.htm (accessed August 15. 2007).

20 "

In Memoriam—Charles Fernald,” Society ofCaliJbmia Pioneers, 3 October 1892, Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

J. Gorham Thayer to Charles Fernald. 1

79

CHARLES FERNALD

Rogers, 23. Heavey may have been deputy sheriff.

July 1852, Huntington Library Collection, San Marino. CA. 22

Hoar had been Henry David Thoreau’s fishing partner when their campfire set the Concord woods ablaze in 1844. Joel

656 ships in 1849. Frank Soule. John H. Gihon, and James Nisbet. The Annals ofSan Francisco; Containing a Summary

Myerson, ed., The Cambridge Companion

ofthe History ofCalifornia(New York:

to Henry David Thoreau{Ncw York: Cambridge University Press. 1995), 129.

Appleton. 1855), 263.

2i Ibid.

Ibid.

23

38

Mason, 36

26

http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist/chron2. html(accessed September 2, 2007).

27 Ibid.

28

meeting.

Charles Enoch Huse, Sketch ofthe History and Resources ofSanta Barbara City and

Charles Fernald to Hannah Hobbs, edited,

County, California, 1876, Gledhill Library.

Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

with Foreword by Cameron Rogers.

California Historical Society Quarterly 34.

March 1955, 42.

29

40

Charles Enoch Huse. The Huse Journal Society. 1977). 142.

Ibid.

to the Ridge Route near Lebec and on to a beach near Malibu on the south. See

According to Huse. he arranged a letter of introduction to the master of the

Tompkins, 125.

42

Ohio, allowing Fernald to travel to

Tompkins. 151-152.

return to Maine. Sec Rogers and Mason.

46

There is no independent verification of either view.

49

Walker A. Tompkins. The Yankee Barbarehos:'The Americanization ofSanta

J. M. Guinn, Historical and Biographical [Record ofSouthern California(Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company. 1902), 283.

The writer is unknown, but it might have

The posse was headed by Cesario Latailladc in pursuit of the murderers of the Reed family at Mission San Miguel.

According to Santa Barbara historian, Neal Graffy."On December 11. 1848, the posse caught up to the murderers near Ortega Hill and Rodriquez was shot and killed.” 13 September 2007.

1853. in Huse. Journal, 75-77.

Ibid.

Boyce.

Barbara County, California iy(y6-igz^ (Ventura, CA: Movini Press. 2003), 129.

3.3

George W. Casserly to Charles Fernald, 26 October 1852, in Rogers. 53-54.

Library Collection. San Marino, CA. Charles Huse to Charles Fernald. 11 March

Arcady:Selected Private Papers of Charles Fernald Pioneer California Jifrist(Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark

been Charlie Borgatcllo. Neal Graffy to author, 18 September 2007.

Rogers, 100.

Document—Appointment. Huntington

Cameron Rogers, A County Judge in

Company, 1954), 21.

Huse, Journal, 142.

Mason, 166.

44 4.3

32

Rogers. 22.

Until 1873 and the formation of Ventura County. Santa Barbara County extended from the Santa Maria River on the north

(Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Historical

Santa Barbara without payment. Other materials suggest Fernald had intended to

Boyce. Capt. Samuel Barney, Pablo de la Guerra, Joaquin Carrillo and Henry S. Carnes may have also been present at the

,32

Boyce. ,33 ,34 55

Rogers. 75-77.

Boyce.

Tompkins, 153.

Ibid.

Ibid.

.38

Charles Huse to Charles Fernald. 15 May 1853, in Rogers, 81.

.39

Boyce.

NOTICIAS

80 Ibid.

17 October 1860, Huntington Library Collection.

61

Block 209, possibly southwest corner of 7H

Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs, 26

Santa Barbara and Ortega streets.

Huse, Journal. 251. There were schools

December 1861 in Rogers, 214-216.

prior to 1858 but not in separate buildings. Huse reports that it cost $1,500 and "was considered . . . a piece of extravagance, and such a waste of public money.” According to Edith Conkey, Huse "organized the first public school in 1855.” Whether Fernald was involved is unknown.

Governor John G. Downey to Charles 80

Fernald, 25 August 1860 in Rogers. 174.

Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs, 30

81

August 1860 in Rogers, 135.

Pablo de la Guerra to Charles Fernald, 17 April 1861 in Rogers, 198.

Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs, July 25, 1861, Huntington Library Collection.

63

Henry G. Langley and Samuel A. Morrison, The State Agisterand Year Boo!{ofFactsfor the Year i8^g(San Francisco: Henry and Morrison, 1859), 382-384.

64 65

Rogers, 34.

Ibid.

83 84

June 1861 in Rogers, 198-199.

Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs, 15 86

^ Huse, Journal, 226.

67

of law business now—it is increasing very fast lately. However, immediately the land case should be in a fair way of settlement. I shall leave all and hasten to

68

Eugene Lies to Charles Fernald. 13 January 1860 in Rogers, 125-126.

69

The resolution reads, "Resolved by the Senate and Assembly concurring. That

period of five months during tiie course of the year 1860.” Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

70

you, Hannah dear .. .” in Rogers, 212213.

87

Mason, 121.

88

Ibid.

89

Ibid. The Board s orders and findings were delivered in Spanish.

90 Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs.

9 February 1862, Huntington Library

Sacramento Union, 9 Feb 1860.

Collection. It is not known if the original wedding wreath was ever found, but the

71

http://www.bruce.ruiz.net/PanamaHistory/ panama_raiIroad.htm (accessed August 24. 2007).

Ibid.

one Hannah would wear on her wedding day survived. Formed of white bird feathers accented with orange blossoms, it is currently displayed in a shadow box in the master bedroom of the Fernald Mansion.

Her parents were Wilson and Sarah Eliot Goodwin Hobbs of New Berwick.

Wilson was the first Whig member of the Maine legislature, her mother was a descendant of Sir William Pepperell.

Wilson died before Hannah was three.

Mason. 119.

92

Certification of Marriage. Daniel R. Goodwin,7 August 1862, Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

74

Mason, 118.

Hannah Fernald to Charlotte Haines,

■■Mbid.

76 77

September 1861 in Rogers, 202-203.

Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs.

8 November 1861, "I have a great deal

Myerson, 129.

the Hon. Charles Fernald, County Judge of Santa Barbara County have leave to be and remain absent from the State for the

Rogers. 42.

Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs. 13

Huse. Journal, 106.

Charles Fernald to Hannah Hill Hobbs.

19 August 1862, Huntington Library Collection.

94

Last Will and Testament of Charles

81

CHARLES FERNALD

g.'i 96

Fernald of Santa Barbara California.

Santa Barbara: Charles E. Huse, Albert

Hall of Records. Santa Barbara County Courthouse, Santa Barbara, California.

Packard, I. F. Williams, S.R.l. Sturgeon, and Charles Fernald.

Mason, 135.

Letter from J.L.C. Amee to John Kennedy, Superintendent of Police in New York,

98

Hutchinson, 1; 75-77; Mason, 127.

Ibid.

IH

The massive redwood carved and painted

9 August 1862, Huntington Library Collection. The Fernalds were traveling

toll sign that once marked the beginning of the route is now displayed in The Story

with a boy, Amasa Pray, and Armee

ofSanta Barbara signature exhibition in the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

noted that "neither of the parties are subject to military draft. . .”

Hannah Fernald to Charlotte Haines,

116

19 August 1862, Huntington Library Collection.

117

Hutchinson, 1: 155.

Invoice. J. Pierce, Importer and Manufacturer of Furniture, San Francisco,

Anapamu streets, site of the present Santa Barbara Public Library, where a new Trinity Episcopal Church was built in 1888. It was considered the finest

This parlor suite was acquired by the Santa Barbara Historical Museum from the estate of Florence Fernald in 1959 and

church in the city until it was destroyed by fire early on the morning of December 20, 1903. Now located on the corner of State and Micheltorena streets, the

is in the Fernald Mansion today.

100

Santa Barbara News-Press,6 February 1949.

existing church was erected in 1912,

Morning Press(Santa Barbara). 12 December 1929.

is dedicated to the memory of Fernald s

where the largest stained glass window

101

son-in-law, poet and author Robert

102

Rogers, 231-232.

Charles Fernald to Hannah Fernald. 28

Cameron Rogers. Rogers was married to Beatrice Fernald Roberts, for whom he

September 1863 in Rogers. 232.

104

106

built QLendessary in 1900, their estate in

Neal Graffy, notes to author. 13 September 2007.

105

Lord W. R. Broome donated a lot at the southwest corner of Anacapa and

California. 10 September 1862, Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

99

Santa Barbara NeivS'Press,6 February 1949.

Mission Canyon.

118

http://www.militarymuseum.org/ HistoryCW.html(accessed September 2.

2007).

Charles Fernald to Captain Antonio Maria de la Guerra. 14 December 1864 in

Rogers. 233-234.

107 Daniel Alef, "Thomas Alexander Scott:

Jarrett T. Richards to President Ulysses S. Grant, 8 March 1870, Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

119

Mason. 146.

120

Hutchinson. 1: 215.

121

Mason, 142.

Ibid.

Mogul and Mentor to Moguls,” Santa Barbara News Press, 19 May 2007.

W.H. Hutchinson, Oil,Land,and Politics (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

1965), 2: 85-86.

109 Ibid.

110

128

March 20, 1861, Rogers, Arcady, 184-185.

124

Tompkins. 284.

125 Ibid.

Ibid. The site is now home to the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

Ibid.

127

111

According to the Sacramento County and City Directory published in 1868, the following lawyers were registered in

Charles Fernald to Hannah Fernald,

The sole surviving street lamp from this era was presented to the Santa Barbara Historical Museum in 1975 by William

NOTICIAS

82

front door of the Fernald Mansion.

and Faye Azbell and now lighcs che front, 128

Tompkins. 284.

Hutchinson, 1:218-222.

Ibid.

1.11

Millar. Gledhill Library. Santa Barbara Historical Museum. l-V

Santa Barbara News-Press,6 February 1949.

Mason. 145-158.

Ibid.

I.W

An accomplished artist, the Princess executed a number of sketches docu

Ibid.

1.14

Ibid.

menting her sojourn in California.

Bruce Gimelson of Garrison, New

B.4

Seventh stanza of "The Reaper and the Flowers” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).

York, presented these drawings of the Monterey area, as well as render

136

Santa Barbara Daily Press, 21 April 1875.

ings of her impressions of Santa Bar bara, to the Santa Barbara Historical

B7

Santa Barbara City Ordinance No. 37. "An Ordinance Granting a Street Railway Franchise. Etc.” Fernald

Museum in 2005.

It is highly unlikely Churchill actually said this, and there are numerous other

Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum. Fernald entered into a written agreement with H.K. Winchester and Eugene Fawcett to build the street railway. Written Agreement. 14 May 1875, Huntington Library Collection.

1.18 1.19

attributions for and permutations of this quotation.

160 161 162

Mason gives the honor of being the first to introduce the eucalyptus tree to

Tompkins, 364-368.

Ibid.

140

Ibid.

141

Ibid.

Elwood Cooper. Moreover, he suggests Cooper was the first to plant olive trees in commercial quantities. See Mason, 278-279.

Hill V. Den,54 Cal. 6(1879).

14.1

Yda Addis Storke, A Memorial and

Tompkins. 367.

Biographical History ojthe Counties of

144

Huse V. Den. 85 Cal. 390(1890).

Santa Barbara,San Luis Obispo and Ventura California{ChiesLgo: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1891), 677.

Tompkins. 368.

146

Santa Barbara News-Press,6 February 1949.

147

149

Los Angeles Imes,8 July 1883.

Ibid.

164

George C. Perkins to James A. Garfield. 15

16.4

March 1881 in Rogers, 241-242.

Ibid.

166 167

Ibid.

168

Rogers. 35.

Boyce.

Santa Barbara News-Press, 3 July 1952.

Tompkins, 378-379 Dorothy Holmes Toporeck, "Living Memories Series: Calle del Estado, The

1.40

Santa Barbara Press, 8 April 1882.

1.4!

Santa Barbara News-Press,5 April 1957.

Story of State Street: Great Celebrations-

1.42

Rogers. 26.

153 Charles Fernald to Hannah Fernald. 28

Railroad, Electric Lights." typescript later published in the Qazette-Citizen (Goleta) 27 June 1963, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

May 1882, Fernald Collection. Gledhill Library. Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

Document—Appointment, Huntington Library Collection.

1.44

Recollections of Bella Millar, companion to Florence Fernald, Fernald Collection.

Gledhill Library. Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

Millar, Gledhill Library. Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

171

Marked Reed & Barton #325, the

1,4

The window can be seen today above the

candelabrum was acquired by the Santa

83

CHARLES FERNALD Barbara Historical Museum from the

including the Judges leather-bound law

Estate of Florence Fernald in 1959 and

books. A sampling of these may be seen today in his black walnut bookcase and

is in the dining room of the Fernald Mansion today.

172

J. T. Richards to Charles Fernald. 16

writing desk. This secretary-desk and the vast majority of the furnishings

August 1887 in Rogers, 256.

Ibid., 257.

bequeathed to Hannah were acquired by the Museum in 1959, either by donation

Neal Graffy notes to author. 13 September 2007.

or purchase, and may be seen in the Fernald Mansion today. The whereabouts of the Judge s watch and jewels remains unknown.

'''' Tompkins, 382.

176 Ibid.

18.5 177

Florence Fernald to her sister Beatrice, July

Tompkins. 396 186

1891, Fernald Collection. Gledhill Library.

Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

178

Application for Membership, 25 January 1892, Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

Ibid.

There is some confusion about the

187

names and continuity of Fernald s legal practice. Jarrett T. Richards, who had been Fernald s law partner, continued to practice law until 1920, his firm known as Richards and Price. However.

of Membership. Colonial Dames of America. Both documents in the Fernald

appears in advertisements as early as 1887. According to Jessie Mason. Boyce was a student of Fernald. studying in his

Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum. In 1898.

Hannah became a Charter Member and

office in 1876. getting admitted to the Bar in 1878. practicing law in Santa Barbara, serving as district attorney from 1882 to 1884, and becoming a named partner of

Regent for the Santa Barbara Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was also elected as a

Fernald, Richardson & Boyce.

member in the New Hampshire Society of Colonial Dames of America in 1899.

Letterhead dated 1889. Huntington Library Collection.

Many of the genealogical documents

189

Daily Independent(Santa Barbara). 19 March 1892.

190

produced by Fernald are in the Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

191

July 1890, Fernald Collection, Huntington Library Thomas R. Bard to Charles Fernald, 27

has since presented a portion thereof to the Santa Barbara Historical Museum,

Florence Fernald to her sister Beatrice Roberts. 6 July 1892, Fernald Collection.

Gledhill Library. Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

January 1891, Collection of the Museum of Ventura County.

In 1959, Fernald’s daughter. Florence, bequeathed the Judge s library to the Santa Barbara Public Library, which

A copy of the letter from Charley Fernald to his father, undated, is in the Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library, Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

Charles Fernald to Hannah Fernald. 27

18-1

Confirmation of Membership. National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. 3 October 1892; Notification

Richards and Fernald had a falling out.

181

Cash receipt for $5.00, initiation fee to membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. October 1890. Huntington Library Collection.

188

and it appears that Fernald set up a new law firm. Fernald. Cope & Boyce, which

180

Daughters of the American Revolution

Ibid.

Ibid.

Hutchinson, 1: 238.

195

Pamphlet, In Jvlemorium Companion Charles Fernald,]u\y 1892, California Society of the Sons of the American

NOTICIAS

84 Revolution of San Francisco. Fernald Collection, Gledhill Library. Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

199

Bisol. 32.

201

Ibid.

19/

IHS - derived from the first three letters of

Jesus’ name using the Greek alphabet.

198 Bisol. 28.

Bisol, 28-30.

20.^

By the Historic House Museums Association.

Huse, Journal, xvii.

Mason, 327.

ytmQ 1830 ● May 27: Born in North Berwick. York County, Maine to Oliver Fernald (1799-1882) and Olive Hurd Fernald (d.l831).

1831 ● March 2: Olive Herd Fernald dies. Charles is ten months old.

1842 ● Transfers to Great Falls, New Hamp shire. to study with Professor Harrison Carroll Hobart.

1848 ● January 24: John Marshall discovers gold at Sutter’s saw mill on the American River in California. ● December 5: President James Polk confirms the discovery in a message to Congress.

1849 ● January 27: Fernald sails for California from New York as a passenger aboard the Tahmaroo to Panama, then travels by river craft and on foot to Panama City. Trip from New York to San Francisco takes six months to complete. He is nineteen years old. ● July 1: Fernald arrives in San Francisco.

1850 ● August: Santa Barbara County organized.

Joaquin Carrillo is county judge; Henry Tefft. judge of the Second Judicial District; and Joaquin de la Guerra is alcalde. ● September 9: California is admitted to the Union as the 31st state. ● November: Discouraged with prospect ing. Fernald returns to San Francisco where he

lives in a tent, works as a journalist for the Alta California and the Morning Post while prepar ing himself for the California bar.

1851 ● May 4: San Francisco is devastated by a fire which destroys Fernald’s possessions, including his law library. ● June 22: Another great fire consumes the Alta California offices, his place of employment.

1852 ● June: Fernald admitted to the California bar. ● June 30: Arrives in Santa Barbara aboard the Ohio. Visits with friends Charles E. Huse.

Edward Sherman Hoar, and Augustus F. Hinchman and accepts appointment as sheriff of Santa Barbara County. ● August 10: Formally sworn-in as county sheriff, having served asinterim sheriff without compensation since his appointment. ● October 26: San Francisco Police Captain George W.Casserly orders a pair of handcuffs for Fernald; they cost $25. ● November 3: Wins the election for Santa Barbara district attorney. ● November 23: Becomes one of the commissioners of the Estate of Carlos Antonio Carrillo. ● December: Appointed interim Santa Barbara County Judge by District Judge Joaquin Carrillo.

1853 ● February: Serves a few weeks as city clerk.

85

CHARLES FERNALD ● March 14: Formally appointed as judge of Santa Barbara County by California Governor John Bigler. ● March 24: Executes in writing oath of office for county judge. ● April 30: Issues writ of ejectment ordering Sheriff W. W. Twist to evict Jack Powers from property claimed by Nicholas Den in the incident known as the Arroyo Burro Affair. ● September 7: Elected without opposition for a four-year term as Santa Barbara County judge, commencing on the first Monday.

April 1854. ● October 12: Fernald institutes measures to purchase the house of Magdalena Cota for a courthouse to be paid out of the accumulated jail funds.

1854 ● Resigns his position as sheriff, citing the inadequacy of the salary.

1859 ● Listed as one of the lawyers in Santa Barbara. The others are R. G. Glenn, Russel Heath, Charles E. Huse. Eugene Lies. Albert Packard. ● Experiments in tobacco and cotton crops to determine suitability of Santa Barbara soil for such plants.

1860 ● January 7: Joint resolution of the Senate and Assembly grants Fernald five-month leave from the United States Circuit Court to return to the East Coast. ● Meets Hannah Hobbs while visiting his father in North Berwick, Maine. ● June 21: Appointed a commissioner of roads with Jose de Arnaz and Pablo de la Guerra. ● August 23: Arrives in San Francisco on return from the East, where he was engaged to Hannah Hobbs.

by Governor John Bigler. ● September 2: Admitted to practice in the

● August 25: Confirms with Governor John Downey his determination to retain his office as county judge. ● September 20: Founds the Republican

Supreme Court of California.

1855

Party in Santa Barbara County, serving as its chairman.

● April 26: Appointed Judge Advocate of the Fourth Division of the California militia

● May 24: Santa Barbara’s first newspaper,

● November 6: Abraham Lincoln is elected

the Qaz^tte, begins publication.

1856

president of the United States.

1861

● March: Begins to represent John C.Jones in the litigation over Santa Rosa Island.

1857

judge, retiring from the bench at age thirtyone.

● June 1: Declines third term as county

● September 2: Commissioned as Attorney.

Solicitor. Counselor and Proctor of Circuit Court of the United States for District of California.

● November 8: Leads the legal opposition to the contested election of Jose Maria

● Instrumental in founding Santa Barbara’s first school and remained one of its largest contributors.

● May 5: Represents Santa Barbara County in the litigation against T. W. More for breach of contract to complete a road

● Reelected without opposition for a second term as Santa Barbara County judge. ● A member of the Society of California Pioneers since 1849, in San Francisco he is

through Santa Barbara.

elected vice-president, serving until 1859. ● Harvests a crop of cotton and later experiments with tobacco, olives, walnuts, and almonds.

Covarrubias to hold post of county judge.

1862

● August 7: Marries his fiancee. Hannah Hobbs, in North Berwick. Maine. ● August 8: To provide for her financial security, his wedding gift to Hannah is a deed to block 247 in the city of Santa Barbara, the site of their future home. The Palms. ● August 11: They set sail for California armed with a letter from the Boston chief of

NOTICIAS

86 police to help ease their way through military check points. ● September 8: Settlement of suit with T. W. More for failure to build road. ● September 10: The Fernalds are in San Francisco, where they begin purchasing furnishings for their future home. ● They arrive in Santa Barbara. They are guests of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Burton in their adobe home on Burtons Mound,future site of the Potter Hotel, overlooking West Beach. ● September 30: Records the title to block 247 with the County of Santa Barbara. ● Begins construction of their mansion at 422 Santa Barbara Street.

1863 ● May 2: First child, daughter Beatrice, is born. ● September 28: The Fernalds take up temporary quarters in an adobe dwelling on Figueroa Street until their residence is completed.

1864 ● The Fernalds move into their new home.

The grounds encompass an entire city block. ● December 14: Solicits donations as secretary of the Relief Committee, to help aid the poor and destitute in Santa Barbara County.

1865 ● Deeply engrossed in fruit culture and in forestry, begins the first experiment in the planting and cultivation of olive trees in Southern California, outside of the Franciscan missions. ● Fernald offered oil lands to Levi Parsons who ostensibly represented Thomas A. Scott, the railroad titan. Scott’s agent,Thomas Bard, arrives in Santa Barbara aboard the steamer Senator. Bard becomes Fernald’s best friend and client. ● Bard and Fernald spend a week on horse back with a pack outfit examining potential oil lands between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. ● April 15: John Wilkes Booth, an actor obsessed with avenging the downfall of the Confederacy, assassinates President Lincoln.

1866 ●

March: Charles E. Huse

petitions

President Andrew Johnson to appoint Fernald to the U.S. District Court, Southern District vacancy. ● May 20: Daughter Edith Eliot is born.

1867 ● On Bards recommendation, Fernald replaces Huse as attorney for T. A. Scott’s California Petroleum Company.

1868 ● April 3: Daughter Florence "Flossie” Hermione is born. ● August 6: Fernald becomes principal founder of the Santa Ynez Turnpike Road Company with investors Dr. Samuel B. Brinkerhoff, Thomas Bell, Dr. M. H. Biggs, attorney Charles E. Huse, Dr. James L. Ord. Eli Rundell, and Dr. James B. Shaw to build a toll road between Santa Barbara and the Santa Ynez Valley over the San Marcos Pass. ● October: Jarrett T. Richards arrives from Pennsylvania and becomes Fernald’s partner in the law firm of Fernald & Richards, Attorneys and Counselors. ● December 15: Tulare Turnpike Road Company organized. Fernald named president and Huse treasurer, in hopes of taking advantage of offering sea port for the Havilah mines.

1869 ● Fernald becomes one of the original shareholders of Santa Barbara College, holding ten of the five hundred issued shares. ● December 25: Trinity Episcopal Church is dedicated. One of the founders is Hannah Fernald.

1870 ● January: Appointed to a committee to meet with Southern Pacific Railroad to discuss a railroad connection to Santa Barbara. ● March: Jarrett Richards sends letter to President Ulysses S. Grant recommending the appointment of Fernald to the office of Judge of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of the State of California.

CHARLES FERNALD 1871 ● February 25: Principal founder of the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce. ● November: Supports the election of Jarrett T. Richards to the post of district attor ney, but voting irregularities defeat Richards’ election. ● December 25: Holds a meeting of promi nent citizens at Vie Palms to organize Santa Barbara’s first gaslight company.

1872 ● February 19: Confrontation between Fernald and District Attorney W.T. Williams over questioned appropriations of county funds by District Judge Pablo de la Guerra and the court clerk. ● February 21: First State Street gaslights are turned on from Stearns Wharf to Haley Street. ● June 1: Fourth child. Charles Anselm, is born. ● September 22: Special meeting of the Board of Supervisors pitting W.W.Hollister, who favors a railroad deal with the California Atlantic & Pacific, against Thomas Bard and Fernald, who support T A. Scott’s Texas Pacific Railroad.

1873

87 J. Maguire and Jarrect T. Richards. ● October: Admitted to argue cases in the United States Supreme Court. He is forty-four years of age. ● Makes a gift of bound files of the Qazette to Santa Barbara Lodge No. 156 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

The Order subsequently is instrumental in establishing the city’s public library.

1875 ● January 5: Citizens of Santa Barbara hold meeting and appoint Fernald, Thomas B. Dibblee, Charles Huse. Thomas Bard, and Samuel B. Brinkerhoff to draft resolutions relating to the construction of a railroad through the county to connect with the Southern Pacific Railroad and San Francisco.

Fernald. Dibblee. and Brinkerhoff appointed by the committee to "confer with the Southern Pacific Railroad and inform them of the sense of the meeting.” ● March: Provides one-third of the capital necessary to build Santa Barbara’s first street railway, a mule-powered line to run from Stearns Wharf up State Street to Sola Street. ● April 29: City Ordinance No.37 granting a street railway franchise is issued, signed by

● January 1: County of Ventura comes

Mayor Jarrett T. Richards. ● June 22: Construction of the railway

into being. Issue between Bard, represented by Fernald, and James Daly, who also claimed the same seat on the new Board of Supervisors.

begins. ● August 21: Santa Barbara’s first streetcar travels up State Street.

● October 20: With partners Jarrett T Richards. Thomas R. Bard. Captain WE.

● October: Charles Huse brings lawsuit against the Den estate and family. Dens coun-

Greenwell, and J. P. Green. Fernald purchases Rancho San Francisco in the Santa Clarita

of portions of Rancho Los Dos Pueblos. Fernald

Valley for $31,500. It would later be sold to Henry Mayo Newhall and would become known as the Newhall Ranch.

represents W.W.Hollister and Ellwood Coo per. two defendants of the Den actions.

1877

● December 8: In response to public appeal.Judge Fernald announces that he is not a candidate for district judge. ● December 23: Seven-year-old Edith Eliot succumbs to scarlet fever. ● December 25: "Laid to Rest" is recorded

● Executes a "deed of gift for the thirtytwo-acre Homestead Col. Fall Farm in North

in Fernald’s daybook.

1874 ● February 5: Pablo dc la Guerra dies.

Fernald is one of the pall bearers along with F.

ter-sue and file cross complaint to revoke sales

Berwick. Maine, to be held in trust for Father during natural life.”

1878 ● March 17: Judge Sepulveda holds the Den estate sale of lands to Hollister and the others to have been valid. Hollister continues to be unhappy over the fees he is charged by Fernald and Wilson. Case is appealed by Kate Den Bell

NOTICIAS

88 and her attorney Tliomas Bishop. ● June 16: Hannah celebrates her thirtyninth birthday.

1879

of Great Britain; her consort, the Marquess of Lome, Governor General of Canada; and their court arrive in Santa Barbara.

1883

● Fernald undertakes a massive expansion of The Palms, which will nearly double the mansions size, giving the home a distinctive,

● January 15; In his capacity as mayor,Fernald entertains the royal couple at The Palms.

multi-gabled Queen Anne appearance.

dress at the Fourth of July celebration in Santa

● November 13: California Supreme Court reverses lower court decision in Denv.Hollister

● July 4: Fcrnald delivers the opening ad

Barbara lambasting communists and despots.

1885

and remands for new trial.

1880 ● Fernald s income is $20,840.

● April 16: The Santa Barbara Daily Press reports that Fernald is one of six directors for the Santa Barbara County National Bank.

● Principal lawyers in Santa Barbara include Charles E. Huse, J. H. Kincaid, O.L. Abbott, C.A. Storke, Caleb Sherman, Charles Fcrnald, E.H. Heacock, Thomas McNuIta, Paul R.

lores.” three years old, and his Jersey Heifer called "Mora,” five months old, to Thomas

Wright, Clarence Gray, R. M. Dillard, B. F.

Barrows of Nordhoff, Ventura County,

Thomas. A. A. Oglesby, Jr., T. L. Kellogg, Hall & Hatch.John J. Boyce. ● January 12; Members of the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara bar send letter

California, for the purpose of breeding fine,

to President Rutherford B. Hayes seeking Fernald s appointment to the new District Court for the United States for the Southern District of California. ● July 6: The Fernalds’ fifth and last child, son Reginald Goodwin is born.

1881 ● March 15: George C.Perkins.U.S.Senator from California, sends letter to President James A. Garfield supporting an appointment of Fernald as Minister to Mexico.

1882 ● April 6: Elected mayor of Santa Barbara

● August 24: Delivers his Jersey cow,"Do

pure-blooded Jersey stock on their joint and equal account. ● December 5: Begins distribution of the giant eucalyptus of West Australia in Cali fornia.

1886 ● October: Introduces electricity to Santa Barbara establishing the Santa Barbara Electric Light and Power Co. with partner Walter H. Nixon. ● Becomes Counselor of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1887 ● January 10: Appointed Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court for the South

by a landslide, his opponent receiving eleven votes.

ern District of California.

● May 27: Fernald is on a fishing trip in Northern California with his closest friend and

first streetlights to shine on State Street.

business associate. Thomas Bard. They are in Calaveras County, staying at the Mammoth Grove Hotel in Big Trees, California. ● Fernald’s father, Oliver Fernald. passes away. ● August 7: Tlie Fernalds celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary. ●

December 25: Her Royal Highness

Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria

● March 19: Closes the switch to power the ● August 8: Charles and Hannah celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. ● August 19: First train arrives in Santa Barbara. This next evening, Fernald is the master of ceremonies at a special banquet to commemorate the occasion. ● October 21: The Stearns Wharf Co. is organized and Fernald is one of the share holders.

CHARLES FERNALD 1888 ●January 1: Stearns Wharf Co. commences business.

1889 ● Consults with Dr. Richler regarding his failing health, but hides che grim prognosis from his children.

1890 ● January 25: Elected vice president of che California State Bar Association. ● January 27: Thomas Bard accepts Fernald s wish to have him serve as executor of Fernald’s estate with Hannah. ● October 7: Charles Anselm Fernald and Reginald Goodwin Fernald are elected members of che Society of California Pioneers. ● October 11: Completes his initiation for membership in the National Association of Sons of the American Revolution.

1891 ● January 27: Thomas R. Bard writes to Fernald. " . . .whenever 1 look back over the past 25 years, I always am compelled to regard you as my most faithful and helpful friend, and that che association with you has been che most influential factor of che formation of my character.” ● February 4: Fernald prepares his last will and testament.

1892 ● January 25: Submits an application on

89 behalf of his wife,Hannah Hill Hobbs Fernald, for membership in che National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. ● March 9: Attends the debut of daughter Florence performing piano solos of works by Schumann and Gade. ● July 7: Dies shortly after 1:00 a.m., with family members at his side. ● July 9: Flags in Santa Barbara lowered to half-mast.

1929 ● December 11: Hannah dies at the Fernald family home at 422 Santa Barbara Street, survived by four children: Beatrice (Mrs. Robert Cameron Rogers), Charles A. Fernald, Reginald G. Fernald, and Florence Fernald.

1946 ● Reginald, former editor and publisher of che Santa Barbara Morning Press, dies.

1950 ● Beatrice dies.

1956 ● Charles A. dies.

1958 ● Florence dies.

1959 ● The Fernald family home is moved to its present location at 414 West Moncecico Street. It is owned and operated by che Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

The Santa Barbara Historical Museum wishes to acknowledge the generous financial support of

Mrc. mh Mrs. CWrlcs Ctccl^ towards the publication of this issue of /

/

i^ias

SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL MUSEUM 2007 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Edgar L. Sands . .

Eleanor Van Core Richard Glenn . . .

John W. Hunt . . .

Garrison E. Bielen

President 1st Vice President 2nd Vice President Treasurer

Daniel Alef Leslie S. Bernstein

Secretary Betsy Lewis Keith J. Mautino Tom Mielko Marlene R. Miller John J. Mitchell III Stefani Taliaferro

Barbara Briggs-Anderson

Jon S. Bull Marilyn B. C. DeYoung Donald Furher Diane Waterhouse

David S. Bisol, Executive Director Douglas A. Diller, Assistant Director/Curator

Sonra Banbana lijsromcat Museum Ibe Gtjrc OF IwscoRy Catnpaion The Sanca Barbara Historical Museum has embarked on a capital campaign to expand facilities and programs to enhance service to the community. The goal is to raise $8 million for the conservation of the historic Covarrubias Adobe as a dedicated center of education, build a new gallery to showcase the artwork of John Edward Boreiii and other significant artists who documented the vast panorama of the West, and to retrofit existing vaults to meet American Association of Museums accreditation. Plans also include raising $2 million for endowment to cover the increased operating costs and to enhance the level of programming to ensure the Museum s long-term financial stability.

To date the committee has raised over $3 million towards the $10 million goal.

For information on T/ie Qift of History Campaign, contact Dru A. Hartley, Capi tal Campaign Director at (805) 966-1601 ext. 122 or campaign@sbhistorical.org.

Development Committee Donald Fuhrer, Chair David S. Bisol. Executive Director Edgar L. Sands, President Daniel Alef William S. Burtness Marilyn B. C. DeYoung Keith j. Mautino Robin Schutte Stefani Taliaferro Eleanor Van Cott Roger Willmon Dru A. Hartley, Capital Campaign Director Fahim S. Farag. Developtnent Associate

Sav)ta 13(^rt>(^wlf(stonc(i;lvHw'Scwm

^iamon^JMlcc l()32--2007 NOTICIAS Journal ol the Santa Barbara Historical Museum 136 E. Dc la Guerra Scrccc Santa Barbara, Caliloriiia 93101

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