VOLUM

LII • FALL

1973 •

NO. 3

J. S. HOLLIDAY,

Director

PAUL

JOHNSON,

Editor

MARILYN ZIEBARTH,

Managing Editor

ROBERT A.

WEINSTEIN,

Art Editor

CHARLES WOLLENBERG,

Reviews Editor

ANNA MARIE HAGER,

Editorial Assistant

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

Robert H. Power,

Chairman;

William Bronson, Frank G. Goodall,

Kenneth

Lamott,

Rodman Paul, Mrs. David Potter, Richard F. Pourade,Richard Reinhardt

California Historical Society

California

Historical

Quarterly

Founded June 6;1871

Reorganized March

27,1922

STAFF

J. S. Holiday,

Executive Director;

V. B. Ger-

hart,

Assistant Director;

Michele Simmons,

Secretary;

Nancy Dottenheim,

Staff Assist-

ant;

BUSINESS:

Joan L. Kerr,

Comptroller;

COMMUNITY SERVICES AND MEMBERSH/P DE-

VELOPMENT:

Kare C. Anderson;

EXHIBITS:

James C. Woodson,

Curator;

Catherine A.

Hoover,

Assistant Curator;

LIBRARY:

Peter A.

Evans,

Librarian;

Lee L. Burtis,

Librarian,

Photographs and Genealogy;

Maude K.

Swingle (Volunteer), Jay Willer,

Reference

Librarians;

Lynn Bonfield Donovan,

Manu-

script Librarian;

Joy Berry,

Cataloger;

PUB-

LIC

totoosAms: Renee Grignard;

PUBLICA-

TIONS:

Paul C. Johnson,

Director;

Marilyn

Ziebarth,

Managing Editor;

Charles Jones,

Book Editor;

BUILDINGS AND PROPERTIES:

Colin Oakey,

Manager;

SOUTHERN CALIFOR-

NIA:

Jean Bruce Ward,

Assistant to the Direc-

tor;

Maedytha DeWolfe, Margaret Eley,

Stall Assistants;

Judith Flodin,

Assistant Ex-

hibits Curator.

HONORARY CURATORS:

George L. Harding,

Kemble Collections;

Annette Windele,

Assist-

ant;

Mrs. Richard F. Phillips,

Costume Col-

lection;

Florence Vance,

Photographs.

OFFICERS

John B. Ritchie,

President

Fred S. Farr,

First Vice-President

Robert H. Power,

Second Vice-President

Mrs.

Edward M. Pallette,

Third Vice-President

Robert M. Joses,

Treasurer

J. S.

Holliday,

Secretary

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

For the term

expiring

1974

James S. Copley, San Diego

Warren R. Howell, San FranciscoMrs. Irene Simpson Neasham,San FranciscoBrian Thompson, Castro ValleyArthur W. Town; San FranciscoAnthony J. Zanze, San Francisco

For

the term expiring 1975

Robert Banning, PasadenaMrs. Francis D. Frost, Jr., Pasadena

Mrs.

Preston Hotchkis, San Marino

Robert M. Joses, San Francisco

Mrs. William Longstreth, Santa Barbara

For the term expiring 1976

William Bronson, Berkeley

Royal Robert Bush, Santa Barbara

Fred S. Farr, CarmelCharles A. Fracchia, San Francisco

W. E. van LOben SeIs, Oakville

Rodman W. Paul, Pasadena

For

the term expiring 1977

David Fleishhacker, San FranciscoJohn B. Huntington, PiedmontMrs. Edward M. Pallette, Los AngelesMrs. Bland Platt, San FranciscoRobert H. Power, Nut TreeEarl Schmidt, Woodside

For the term expiring 1978

Mrs. Maurice Machris, Los Angeles

Thomas V. Reeve, Santa Ana

John B. Ritchie, San Francisco

Albert Shumate, San FranciscoHenry Teichert, Sacramento

Edison Uno, San Francisco

COVER:

Aswell doffs his hat to a non-seeing young lady on Van Ness Avenue, the

social and business center of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire of 1906.This drawing by Maynard Dixon is one of the scores of illustrations by him pub-

lished in

Sunset Magazine

during his

22-

year affiliation with filo monifox,

ro-o, nno rrs.r -rut

TWCIPNTA

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

4rz'

n 4-t-r "

4-r 4.n-c--6-

real

gum syrup, which contains gum arabic, and the last piece fell into

place. We gathered in my office in the Columbus Tower—just a block

from Washington and Montgomery—and partook of what was prob-ably the first serving of authentic Pisco Punch since John Lannes last

poured it before be died in the early s 950's.

It was smooth and good. It was fragrant, seductive and delicate. My

wife has asked me not to drink it again. The difference between what

I tasted when I first made it and what was served that day was not a

difference in flavor, but in texture and bite. I am convinced that the

mystery ingredient in Pisco Punch is nothing more than gum arable,

and that it works in some way to take all the rough edges off the

Peru-

vian

brandy and perhaps alter the rate of absorbtion or metabolism ofthe alcohol in it. This is the recipe for gum syrup:

Research Uses of County Court Records,

1850-1879

And Incidental Intimate Glimpses of California

Life and Society

Part I

W. N. DAVIS, Jr

Chief of Archives,

California Siaie Archives, Sacramento

ourt-r

COURT

records are a rich and virtually untapped resource for his-torical research. Forming a well-ordered archival entity, court record

series are valuable sources for social, economic, biographical, genealogi-

cal, and (perhaps a less familiar area) legal history. Although this study is basedalmost entirely on California materials, hopefully it suggests the extraordinary

documentary dimensions—and, hence, the considerable research value—of localcourt records throughout the country.'

The Constitution of a 849 determined California's court structure in the period

5850-1879, the first decades of California's statehood.' County courts of the time

were five in number: the justice court, county court, court of sessions, probate

court, and district court.' They were the courts that functioned in every Califor-

nia county, assembling the evidence from which were winnowed the facts essen-

tial to case judgments.Of course, the records of these local courts have varying value to the historian.

The important but more selective files of the appellate supreme court (and ofthe later courts of appeal), which emphasize questions of law, cannot compareto trial court records either in range of subject matter or in wealth of factual

content.

Physically, records of the county courts consist of books and unbound files.Clerks of the court kept several series of books in which the chronology and

principal facts of court proceedings were recorded.' The record books of highest

research value are the minute books, which recount the day-to-day business ofthe court, and the judgment books, which record the decrees, orders, and sen-

tences that conclude the actions. In addition, clerks kept dockets, registers of ac-

tions,

jury

books, fee books, and the like. Accurate indexes of the names of the

plaintiffs and defendants were maintained for the record books. Unbound case

Crush one pound of gum arabic (if not already in crystal form), and soak for 24hours in a pint of distilled water. (Gum arabic can be purchased at some confec-tionery supply houses and health food stores.) Add the gum arable solution to a

syrup made of four pounds of sugar and one quart of water boiled to zzo°F. As themixture continues to boil, skim off impurities and then let it cool to room tempera-

ture. Filter through cheese cloth and store in bottles.

So let's get to work on the secrets of Tyrian purple and the art of

tempering copper. While Lannes' recipe for Pisco Punch could be off

in sonic small degree, I'm convinced that it is as close to Nicol's nectaras mortals will ever know.

)47



bc7,Lb.-

Second Series:

tie241

DISTRICT

jv'

45`

242



alifornia Historical Quarterly

files, on the other hand, were made up of loose documents that accumulated in

the course of case adjudication. Often referred to as the judgment rolls, the casefiles contain such items as complaints, summonses, pleadings, depositions, affi..

davits, testimony, exhibits, writs, judgments, and executions. The

ndexes of

the record books also serve as indexes for the case files. Generally speaking

the

case files are much the most important court records for research purposes, andof the records in the case files, the most useful are the complaints, depositions,affidavits, and in-court testimony, which more often than not contain Uniqu

and significant factual material. The testimony, depositions, and affidavits area notable portion of the original corpus of oral history, with the special impor-

tance of being oral history taken under oath.

For all their richness, court records have certain limitations as a research

source, both as to content and convenience of use. Such materials, of course, are

but one of the several primary sources that often exist for study of a given sub-

ject, and they alone rarely provide all the information on a topic one might

want. As with all sources, they must be read and evaluated closely and critically.

arther, effective use of court records usually requires a special kind of patient,

thorough, and imaginative digging. The researcher may go through a quantity

of material that could scarcely be more irrelevant before coming upon facts that

bear on his subject. Owing to the scattered locations and considerable bulk of

the California county court records, the evidence upon which this paper is based

constitutes but a very small part of the total records available. It neverthelessappears that the field is a good one for quantitative survey and analysis of data,and, fortunately, much can also be learned from more casual case-sampling.Perhaps the most obvious use of county court records is in the area of social

and cultural history.

Collectively, the court cases document an endlessly kaleido-

scopic and very human cross-section of the life of the times. Informative details,

a revealing spectrum of local color, and insights into personalities, issues, and

events abound. The records show human hopes, strivings, speculations, and

frolics: the successes and the failures. Researchers can observe the misdemeanors

and the crimes, the full range of wrongs to person and property, and the offenses

against the peace and dignity of the state. Pioneers become the human beings

that they actually were—good, bad, and in-between. The circumstances—fortu-

nate and unfortunate, in high places and low—under which they actually lived

become real.

A charge such as "Swindling or Cheating" appears early in the Sacramentocases. As Luke Agur, a miner, testified

the Sacramento County court of ses-

sions in January, 1851, "My landlord told me yesterday that if I am going to

get gold dust weighed, to be careful and not get cheated as there was a great deal

of cheating." The forewarned Agur caught the dealer moving the hook at the

end of the scale beam in an attempt to obtain $32

gold dust for only $24.. That

same month another trader was charged with swindling for using scales which

registered $22 of gold dust at $14.' That such transactions were not entirely one-

sided is demonstrated by the cases involving counterfeit gold dust and counter-feit nuggets. In July, /851, for example, Samuel Kurtz paid $5,000 in moneyfor what was represented to be 312 ounces of gold dust, "whereas in truth and

in fact the said metalic substance was not mineral gold."8

County Court Records



The theft of gold dust, as might be expected, was, for a time, a very commoncause of criminal action. Mrs. Mary King testified in the Sacramento justice

court in July, t 85o, that persons unknown had stolen from her room two leather

bags containing gold dust and California coin worth about $

,500.

A. B. Cald-

well made an affidavit in Sacramento in August, 1850, that on the previous after-

noon, "while asleep near a house" on the Johnson Rancho road, he had been

relieved of gold dust worth $1,500 to $1,600, "amongst which is fine Yuba

gold."° William Wilkie charged in Sacramento in September, 1850, that JacobLose had stolen from the affiant and his associates some $2400 "in Coarse dust

principally Specimens of five dollars and upward each and a bag containing

black sand with a portion of Gold in it.""

In the year 1853, in the little frontier village of Union Town in northwest-ern California's Humboldt County, both parties to a marriage sued each otherin the district court for a divorce. The facts show that the wife had left her hus-

band and taken up lodging in a house in which the only other resident was an un-

married gentleman boarder. One may look at the testimony of the couple's

neighbors for frank pronouncements concerning local scruples and standardsof conduct. An acquaintance of the boardinghouse occupants testified that he

thought "it was improper that they should live in the same house together."Another thought "they were greater friends than they ought to be under the

circumstances" and that "their conduct would cause the people to talk." Testi-

mony brought out the fact that the doors of the boardinghouse were merely cloth

drop doors; entered as an exhibit was a diagram of the floor plan and the loca-tion of the furniture. Another witness testified that as he was passing the houseone night, "I heard some low talking. . . . I stood there something like ten min-utes. . I was standing as close to the house as I could get to peep in through acrack by the door. . . I saw a light under the door and stooped to look." And so

a procession of pioneering people, telling of their observations and surmises, re-

citing rumors and opinions and facts, thus provide for the record something of

the flavor, the interests, and the problems of life in Union Town.

Actions for divorce usually required a showing of fault which means, for the

In county courts, unbound case files, of tenreferred to as judgment rolls, were assembledfrom the loose documents accumulated inthe course of case adjudication. They containsuch items as complaints, depositions, testimony,exhibits, judgments, and executions and areusually the most important records forresearch purposes.